Annual sales tax holiday set for August 1-3

The annual Missouri state sales tax holiday is fast approaching.

The sales tax holiday is a three-day event that takes place every year to give consumers the opportunity to buy back-to-school items at list price without the addition of sales tax charges. This year's tax holiday will take place from 12:01 a.m., this Friday to midnight on Sunday.

The sales tax holiday will take place statewide, eliminating the state's portion of the tax rate from all qualified items, but each local tax jurisdiction has the option whether or not to participate in the holiday. If a local jurisdiction should choose not to participate, the local sales tax charges will still be applied, but state sales taxes will remain exempt from the purchase of qualified items.

Qualified sales tax holiday items include clothing, school supplies, personal computers, computer software and computer peripheral devices, with a few stipulations.

Items deemed "clothing" include any item that is intended to be worn on or about the human body and are limited to a taxable value of $100 per item. "School supplies" can be any item that is normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes and these items cannot exceed a full purchase price of $50 per order.

"Personal computers" are laptops, desktops, or tower computer systems which consist of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a monitor, a keyboard and other devices for use in conjunction with a personal computer.

These items, along with computer peripheral devices, are not to exceed a taxable value of $3,500 to qualify for tax exemption. Anyone who wishes to buy any of these items during the sales tax holiday will receive the tax exemptions, including teachers who buy school supplies for students using their own personal funds.

The tax holiday only qualifies on the items listed if they are purchased for personal use, however. If a business should choose to buy new computer equipment that is for employee rather than personal use, those items will not be exempt from the applicable sales taxes.

The city of Nevada and Vernon County have both opted to participate in this year's tax holiday, so any qualifying items purchased from local businesses will come with all sales tax exemptions. However, any store that is within the local tax jurisdiction and carries these items in less than two percent of its total inventory can charge sales tax but must refund it at the request of the consumer.

The contents of the statute relevant to this holiday can be found in House Bill 64, to which there is a link available on the Missouri Department of Revenue's Web site, dor.mo.gov.

A complete list of qualifying items and exemptions, along with the dates and times for this year's tax holiday and frequently asked questions is also available on the Missouri Department of Revenue's Web site. The site also includes a list of all counties, cities and districts that have opted out of the holiday as well as links to tax rate tables.