Sales Tax Holiday Helps Get Kids Back to School

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As school supply lists grow longer and more detailed officials say it makes this tax free weekend that much more important. “Backpacks, lunch boxes, 24 count crayons, clothing shoes, computers, printers, printer accessories,” WalMart Representative Molly Blakeman lists off all the back to school essentials. And the list goes on and on… All of the things your kids need before heading back to school. Jaimie St.Marie says, “It is a little bit of a sticker shock to be honest with you, three kids, it gets expensive very quickly.” This weekend shoppers will get a small reprieve from those expenses, when the State suspends sales tax on back to school items “When you think about a family with multiple kids back to school supplies can be around $35 total per classroom per kid when you think about sales tax for those items and that savings it can mean a lot for a family,” says Blakeman. This weekend’s sales tax holiday isn’t just saving shoppers money, it’s boosting the economy. According to Rick Reames with the S.C. Department of Revenue, “The tax free weekend is the second largest spending weekend in the year after black Friday. There’s a multiplier effect associated with this weekend because a lot of items are not exempt.” St.Marie says,”Then you get sucked in to the trap of well I want these pencils and I want this notebook cause it’s cooler or nicer or it has more pockets and all of a sudden you’re looking at double the cost.” Cutting costs so parents have one less thing to worry about as kids head back to school. “They’re actually excited to go back to school, we’re excited,” says St.Marie. Tax free weekend begins on Friday at midnight and runs all the way through midnight on Sunday.