{"id":11190,"date":"2012-08-03T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T14:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=11190"},"modified":"2012-08-03T10:53:34","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T14:53:34","slug":"back-to-school-shoppers-get-a-sales-tax-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/08\/03\/back-to-school-shoppers-get-a-sales-tax-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Back-To-School Shoppers Get A Sales Tax Break"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11192\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/08\/03\/back-to-school-shoppers-get-a-sales-tax-break\/crowded-mall-by-nitj\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11192\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11192\" title=\"crowded mall by NITJ\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/08\/crowded-mall-by-NITJ.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">NITJ\/flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malls around Florida are expected to be crowded this weekend.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.frf.org\/index.php\/2012-sales-tax-holiday\/88-government-affairs\/retail-councils\/finance-and-tax-council\/sales-tax-holiday\/508-2012-sales-tax-holiday-reminder\">Shoppers won\u2019t have to pay taxes on certain items this weekend<\/a> thanks to Florida\u2019s \u201cBack to School Sales Tax Holiday.&#8221; It runs Friday through Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The event is expected to bring a boost in state revenue.<\/p>\n<p>Shoppers will find tax breaks on school supplies that cost up to $15 and clothing items that cost up to $75.<\/p>\n<p>Stores tend to offer big bargains to coincide with the tax cut, and shoppers wind up spending money on taxable items, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state actually makes a little bit more money during the period even though there\u2019s a tax break,\u201d said Rick McAllister with the Florida Retail Federation. \u201cIt really does have a huge stimulus effect on spending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Washington Economics Group found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frf.org\/files\/weg_2011.pdf\">the sales tax holiday in 2010 generated $115 million <\/a>more in taxable sales than the same full tax weekend the previous year. The end result was a $7 million net increase in tax revenues to the state in 2010 above what would have been collected without a tax break.<\/p>\n<p>But other analysts argue sales tax holidays are poor policy and there is <a href=\"http:\/\/bellpolicy.org\/node\/4774\">no net benefit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s tax free shopping holiday began more than a decade ago to coincide with families getting ready to send kids back to school.<\/p>\n<p>The retail federation wants the event expanded to nine days, giving families two weekends to take advantage of the tax break.<\/p>\n<p>The length of the tax holiday is up to Florida lawmakers, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frf.org\/index.php\/2012-sales-tax-holiday\/88-government-affairs\/retail-councils\/finance-and-tax-council\/sales-tax-holiday\/513-rep-alan-williams-make-tax-holiday-annual-event\">who have to approve it each year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Among the long list of items that are tax-free<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Backpacks<\/li>\n<li>Belts<\/li>\n<li>Calculators<\/li>\n<li>Computer discs<\/li>\n<li>Crayons<\/li>\n<li>Highlighters<\/li>\n<li>Hosiery<\/li>\n<li>Jackets<\/li>\n<li>Jeans<\/li>\n<li>Notebooks<\/li>\n<li>Pajamas<\/li>\n<li>Pens<\/li>\n<li>Shoes<\/li>\n<li>Socks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Some items that are NOT tax-free<\/strong>: jewelry, briefcases, helmets, life jackets, sports pads, printer paper, staplers, books, and flash drives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.frf.org\/files\/tip2a01-02List.pdf\">Click here to see a full list<\/a> of items that are taxable or exempt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shoppers won\u2019t have to pay taxes on certain items this weekend thanks to Florida\u2019s \u201cBack to School Sales Tax Holiday.&#8221; It runs Friday through Sunday. The event is expected to bring a boost in state revenue. Shoppers will find tax breaks on school supplies that cost up to $15 and clothing items that cost up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1072,1133],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11216,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190\/revisions\/11216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}