It's truly unbelievable how quick summer goes by. Soon we'll be dropping our kids off at school again, but before that happens they'll need school supplies!

This year the first day of school will be Monday, August 19th for Tyler and Longview ISD along with many other school districts around East Texas starting around the same time. We'll will soon be flocking to the office supply store, big box retailer, mall and other specialty stores to purchase those items on the school supplies list as requested by teachers and schools.

To help ease the pain of purchasing school supplies, the State of Texas offers a 'Tax Free Weekend' for back to school shopping. This year's tax free weekend is August 9th through 11th. During the annual sales tax holiday you can buy most clothing (including school uniforms and athletic apparel), footwear, backpacks (less than $100) and school supplies tax free from a store on online business within the state tax free.

There is a whole list of qualifying items along with exemptions on the Texas Comptroller website, including a list for:

  • clothing - footwear - other items
  • school supplies
  • backpacks

The state sales tax rate is waived during this special weekend along with some local taxes, however, for those cities still charging local tax, you could still be paying some taxes, but they'll be low.

Good luck finding everything on your school supply list and the shoes in their size on Texas Tax Free Weekend August 9th - 11th.

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