8/2/07
School shoppers get ready … S.C. Sales Tax holiday is this weekend!!!
By Cathy Gilbert

Parents and students arm yourselves for a mega-school shopping weekend: the 2007 sales tax holiday weekend will begin at 12:01 am Friday, August 3 and end at midnight Sunday, August 5. During this weekend back-to-school shoppers can purchase everything from bed linens, pillows, pillow cases, shower curtains, and bath towels to clothing, clothing accessories, footwear and other related items that are exempt from the state’s 6% sales and use tax and any local county sales tax. Computers and printers, a key purchase for many shoppers during the tax-free weekend, remain exempt from the state’s sales and use tax, as well.

The sales tax holiday, however, does not apply to sales of jewelry, cosmetics, eyewear, wallets, watches, furniture, rental of clothing or footwear, items for use in a business, or items placed on layaway or similar deferred payment and delivery plans.

This is the eighth year of the tax-free weekend which, by law, is held the first full weekend of each August. The South Carolina Merchants Association has said the tax-free weekend is the third busiest shopping weekend of the year behind the post-Thanksgiving and the pre-Christmas Day weekends. Shoppers typically save about $3 million during the annual sales tax holiday event.

Additionally, last year the South Carolina Legislature approved the state’s first, and one-time, Thanksgiving sales tax holiday and taxpayers saved an estimated $14.4 million.

The list of tax exempt items, and non-exempt items, and frequently asked questions about the sales tax holiday, can be found at the DOR website, www.sctax.org, under the “What’s New” listing on the homepage. There are no changes to the list of exempt items this year.