If your business sells clothes, footwear, certain accessories, school supplies, or personal computers, the upcoming Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday will affect your business.  For 3 days in August, these items will be exempt from the state sales tax if they meet certain price restrictions.

Here are some details about this year’s tax-free shopping days:

  • The tax-free days will run from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 4th through midnight on Sunday, August 6th.
  • Items that will be tax-free are:
    • Clothing, footwear, and accessories like wallets and purses selling for $60 or less
    • School supplies selling for $15 or less per item
    • Personal computers such as e-readers, laptops, tablets, etc., and computer-related accessories like keyboards, modems, etc., selling for $750 or less.

Retailers are not required to keep additional or special records for the tax-free days.  Sales of eligible items that are sold tax-free from August 4th through August 6th should be reported as exempt sales on your sales tax return for that period.

Businesses that sell only a small number of items covered by the sales tax holiday are allowed to opt out of participating in the holiday.  To opt out, a business must:

  • Have less than 5% of its gross sales attributable to items included in the sales tax holiday,
  • Notify the Department of Revenue in writing by August1st, and
  • Post a notice where customers can see it that the business has opted out of the sales tax holiday and will be collecting sales tax on these items.

The Florida Department of Revenue will provide a detailed Tax Information Publication to all active registered sales tax dealers explaining:

  • A detailed list of items that are tax-free and which ones are taxable during the holiday
  • What to do when a product contains both exempt and taxable items
  • How to deal with gift certificates
  • How to handle exchanges of tax exempt purchases after the tax-free days are over
  • How to do refunds during/after the tax free days

If you are a retail business and have questions about the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, you can call the Department of Revenue’s toll-free Taxpayer Services line at 800-352-3671, or click here for more detailed information on the 2017 Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday or here for a list of frequently asked questions.