Save On Back-To-School Shopping During Texas Tax-Free Weekend

Summer is in full swing. Kids are enjoying sleeping in and not going to bed early and they're having fun hanging out and playing with their friends.  All that fun though will come to an end soon.  Take a quick look at the calendar and you'll see that time is quickly running out to squeeze in that last-minute summer vacation.

I was reminded of just how quickly summer is going by when I walked into the Walmart Supercenter on S. Broadway in Tyler this past weekend.

After walking through the swinging gates I was immediately greeted by the 'Back To School' aisles! Yes, it's that time for back-to-school shopping. Students around East Texas will begin school in a little over a month.

With school getting ready to begin, so does the back-to-school shopping.

As inflation continues to take a toll on our budgets, school-related purchases are going to be expensive this year and we'll be watching how much we spend on back-to-school items because it's going to be critically important on how it impacts our budgets.

Kids are going to need:

• basic school supplies
• uniforms
• jackets
• lunch boxes
• new shoes
• athletic wear
• backpack
• face masks

Texas Sales Tax Holiday Is August 9 - 11, 2024

As long as you purchase qualifying items from a retailer or an online store during the Texas Sales Tax Holiday weekend, you will not have to pay the state sales tax on those items. There are limits set to how much a qualifying item may be and as long as it doesn't exceed that set price it will be tax-free. This goes for items purchased in traditional brick-and-mortar businesses as well as online.

Save the tax during this special weekend.

Whether your child needs the basics for the first grade, like construction paper, crayons, safety scissors, pencils, and markers or they need something highly specialized for high school, like a graphing calculator, as long as it's less than $100 and on the state's list you'll be saving some money as you do your back-to-school shopping.

Online purchases

When purchasing something online you'll want to make sure that the price of the item and any associated shipping costs do not exceed the $100 limit. If it does, you'll be responsible for paying the tax.

Check the Texas Comptrollers site for details on how to handle layaways, special orders, rain checks, and business account purchases.