Virginia is holding a three-day sales tax holiday and Maryland is holding a similar one for a week, as local shoppers load their carts with back-to-school items.
Virginia
This year’s Virginia’s sales tax holiday, from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4, comes after state lawmakers forgot to renew the sales tax holiday during budget negotiations back in March 2023. That legislation expired so it could not be offered in August, as in previous years, when people are usually shopping for back-to-school items. But it was eventually held last October.
The state’s Department of Taxation said shoppers can buy “qualifying school supplies, clothing, footwear, hurricane and emergency preparedness items, and Energy Star™ and WaterSense™ products without paying sales tax.”
Qualified school supplies priced “$20 or less per item” and qualified clothing and footwear priced “$100 or less per item” are eligible for the savings.
Hurricane and emergency preparedness products, including portable generators priced at “$1,000 or less per item,” gas-powered chain saws priced at “$350 or less per item,” chain saw accessories priced at “$60 or less per item” and “other specified hurricane preparedness items” for sale at “$60 or less per item,” are also included.
As are “qualifying Energy Star™ or WaterSense™ products,” according to Virginia officials, as long as the products purchased are for “noncommercial home or personal use” and are priced at “$2,500 or less per item.”
Virginia’s sales tax rate for most areas is 5.3%, but in Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Falls Church, Loudoun, Manassas, Manassas Park and Prince William, it is 6%.
Maryland
Maryland holds its “Tax-Free Week” between Aug. 11 and Aug. 17.
Only “designated clothing, footwear and backpacks/bookbags” are eligible, according to the state’s Office of the Comptroller.
It said “certain clothing, footwear and accessories are eligible,” citing footwear, sweaters, shirts, slacks, jeans, dresses, robes, underwear, belts, shoes and boots “priced at $100 or less.” It also said “the first $40 of a backpack/bookbag purchase is tax-exempt.”
The District
D.C. had sales tax holidays similar to Virginia and Maryland, before they were repealed in 2009.
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