Editor’s Note – Some cities and counties do not participate. Check with the local city or county offices in your area.
Missouri’s annual Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 1, and runs through midnight on Sunday, Aug. 3. During this time, certain purchases such as school supplies, computers, clothing, and other qualifying items as defined by statute are exempt from all state and local sales tax.
During the defined period, state and local sales tax will not be charged on the following items:
Clothing that does not have a taxable value of more than $100. Eligible clothing items include any article of apparel intended to be worn on or about the body, including footwear and disposable diapers for infants or adults. Cloth and other materials used to make school uniforms or other school clothing are also included. Not included are watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles; and
School supplies, not exceeding $50 per purchase, that are used in a standard classroom for educational purposes. School supplies include, but are not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, chalk, maps, globes, handheld calculators, graphing calculators that do not have a taxable value of more than $150, and computer software that does not have a taxable value of more than $350. Not included are watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures; and
Personal computers that do not cost more than $1,500 and computer peripheral devices that do not cost more than $1,500. A personal computer can be a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system, consisting of a central processing unit, random-access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, and a keyboard. Peripheral devices include items such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disc drive, daughterboard, digitizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, sound card, or video card.
In addition to state sales tax, local sales tax will also be waived in all cities, counties, and special tax districts. Anyone making these qualified purchases will receive the tax waiver.
