Back to School Sales Tax Holiday kicks off Friday

Shoppers will be out in full force this weekend purchasing school related items as Pettis County participates in the statewide Back to School Sales Tax Holiday.

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Friday, shoppers can stock up on school supplies, computers and clothing that will be exempt from the state and county sales tax.

According to the Missouri Department of Revenue’s Web site, dor.mo.gov, individual cities can choose not to participate in the tax holiday. In Sedalia, the city sales tax will still be in effect.

Russell Hall, operations manager at Staples in Sedalia, said he expected during the three-day weekend, the store will see an increase in the number of school supplies and computers being purchased.

“Yes, we are expecting it to be busy,” Hall said.

He said Staples has been busy for the past few weeks, but many shopper may be waiting for the tax holiday to purchase bigger items such as computers.

“A lot of people have been asking about it,” Hall said.

The sales tax exemption is limited to clothing having a taxable value of $100 or less, school supplies that do not exceed $50 per purchase, computer software with a taxable value of $350 or less, personal computers that do not exceed $3,500 and computer peripheral devices that do not exceed $3,500.

Missouri has a sales tax of 4.225 percent, which is used to finance portions of the state government for general revenue, education and parks and soils.

Pettis County Presiding Commissioner Rusty Kahrs said the tax holiday encourages people to shop locally for their back to school needs.

“It’s been our experience in the last couple of years that it doesn’t have an impact positively or negatively on the county revenue,” Kahrs said. “We’re definitely interested in doing everything we can to help the taxpayers.”

The Pettis County sales tax is 5.225 percent.

Shoppers have until midnight Sunday to take advantage of the tax holiday.

Qualifying items:
“Clothing” - any article of wearing apparel, including footwear, intended to be worn on or about the human body. The term shall include but not be limited to cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing. Items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify for the exemption. The term shall not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles.

“School supplies” - any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including but not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, chalk, maps, and globes. The term shall not include watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. School supplies shall also include computer software having a taxable value of $350 or less.

“Personal computers” - a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, and a keyboard and devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer, such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitalizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, soundcard, or video card.

chudson@sedaliademocrat.com