Mark Aug. 9 and 10 on your calendar as opportune times to buy back-to-school stuff — including computers.
Those are two days when merchants won’t be charging sales tax on clothes, shoes, school supplies and computers.
There are limits, of course.
Shoes can’t cost more than $100 a pair; same with each item of clothing. The cap on school supplies is $20 per item, and it’s $1,000 on computers and computer accessories.
But with more than a million children heading back to school, shoppers, collectively, can see big savings. It’s estimated that shoppers save in excess of $10 million when they don’t have to pay 6 to 8 percent sales tax for these two days each year.
Georgia has had an annual sales tax holiday for more than a decade. There were no sales tax holidays in 2009, 2010 and 2011, when state officials said they just couldn’t afford it.
It was brought back in 2012.
"The 2013 sales tax holiday represents an excellent opportunity for parents to save money on basic necessities when getting their children ready for the upcoming school year in Georgia," said Doug MacGinnitie, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Revenue. Details on qualifying purchases are at: https://etax.dor.ga.gov/hottopics.aspx.
At least 17 states have tax-free periods planned for 2013, mostly for school-related spending.
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