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Taking a weekend off from taxes
By Peggy Blackburn - Managing Editor
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Back-to-school shoppers in many parts of Elmore County will get a hefty break this weekend during Alabama’s second statewide sales tax holiday. Wetumpka, Eclectic, Millbrook and the Elmore County Commission have all opted to join other communities across the state in suspending collection of sales taxes on specific items the first weekend of August.
“Our ordinance parallels exactly the state ordinance,” said Wetumpka’s Robert Hankins, District 4 councilman.
Shoppers will still be required to pay the one-cent sales tax that accrues to the Elmore County Board of Education. In Tallassee the holiday is limited, with four-fifths of one-cent that will not be abated. Coosada, Deatsville and Elmore are not participating in the tax-free holiday.
The tax cut will be in effect beginning at one minute past midnight Friday and continuing until midnight Sunday.
Purchases that will be exempt from state sales tax during the holiday are: most clothing costing up to $100 per item; computers, software and computer supplies up to $750 per item; school supplies and textbooks up to $50 per item; and other books up to $30 each.
Through July 25, 232 cities and counties across the state had passed legislation to participate in this year’s sales tax holiday according to the Alabama Department of Revenue.
Consumers will save an estimated $3.5 million in state sales taxes during the holiday.
A total of 14 states, including Alabama, offer sales tax holidays on back-to-school purchases.
