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Florida Starts Month-Long Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday

A permanent, predictable window lets shoppers buy capped clothing, school supplies and personal computers tax-free to help ease back-to-school costs.

Overview

  • Florida’s month-long back-to-school sales tax holiday began Monday and runs through Aug. 20, allowing tax-free purchases on qualifying items during that window.
  • The exemption applies only to items within set price caps: clothing, footwear and some bags priced $100 or less per item; school supplies $50 or less per item; learning aids $30 or less; and personal computers and related accessories $1,500 or less.
  • The holiday excludes many purchases including cellular phones, video game consoles, briefcases and suitcases, rentals or repairs, commercial computer purchases, and sales inside theme parks, hotels or airports.
  • Retailers prepared promotions tied to the fixed dates — for example Best Buy published a dedicated back-to-school deals page — and advocates say the permanence helps stores and shoppers plan.
  • Lawmakers made the month-long holiday permanent in 2025 and legislative economists previously estimated comparable benchmarks would yield about $217 million in consumer savings, a factor that reduces revenue for state and local budgets.