During our back-to-school season in Texas the past several years, the state has stopped collecting sales taxes on specified items voted "most likely to be worn by punk kids going back to school." This year, it's Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Me and the Petite Filet don't have a school-aged child yet, but clothing for us (each item must be less than $100; my entire wardrobe isn't worth that much) also applies.
Diapers are also sales-tax free those three days, and that's a sad necessity in our house right now. We'll be stocking up.
Here's a few things that ARE NOT tax-free in Texas this weekend, no matter how much you might need them to go back to school:
Bullets
Pickup trucks
Beer
Hand grenades
Radial tires
Four-wheelers
Hunting knives
iPods
Laptop computers
Cell phones
Backpacks (this was tax free one year, but strangely isn't now)
Steel-toed kick-butt boots (if over $100 a pair)
Boomerangs
Clearisilฎ or Oxyฎ facial cleansers
Bullet-proof vests
Helmets (motorcycle, football, riot gear)
"Back to School for Dummies" book
Peace of mind and common sense (you pay a high price for not having these).
Happy shopping!
It's too bad that texas doesn't have tax free on computers, whereas there are about 5 other states who do have tax free for computers on certain dates. Most college students need computers and wouldn't that be nice of the state to give them tax free on the computers because the parents and students are already paying an arm and a leg for college why not give them a break sometime?
Tax free days? Wow.
That would be great up here. Sometimes stores will cover taxes during a sale, but I think we'd all pass out if the government actually did something for the people.
Tax free shoes? Yay!
What? Bullet proof vests aren't tax free? But can't you argue that they're a necessary school expenditure?
I've been a little busy, so only just saw your post about the Cutlet's bed. I'm not sure how popular Ikea is in the US of A, but when you mentioned a jungle theme, I was immediately reminded of one of the displays I saw at my local Ikea, involving leaf-shaped bed canopies. Here's the display shown on Ikea-USA.
I think it's funny that people get all lathered up about getting 8.25% off their purchases. When there's a good sale on top of that, I can understand...
But I really need those bullets and beer to go back to school. I don't think I'll survive without them. There's nothin' like bein' drunk and shootin' sumthin' (yourself/ your buddy included).
The state of IA is doing the same thing this weekend and there seem to be a lot of folk from Omaha taking the trip across the river.