New Jersey Sales Tax Holiday for Back to School

Starting this weekend, New Jersey will be having a Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday from Saturday, August 27 through Monday, September 5. This 10 day tax holiday is a first for New Jersey, however this has been a trend for other states in the past.

Retail sales exempt from sales tax during the holiday:

• Computers costing less than $3,000
• Computer supplies costing less than $1,000 (printers, printing supplies, CDs, storage media, etc.)
• Instructional materials (textbooks, workbooks, reference books, maps, and globes)
• School supplies (book bags, lunch boxes, binders, notebooks, calculators, pens and pencils, crayons and markers, highlighters, glue, scissors, and more)
• Art supplies (paints, watercolors, clay, paint brushes, drawing pads, etc.)
• Sport or recreational activity equipment (helmets, athletic shoes or cleats, gloves, ballet shoes, mouth guards, life preservers, and more)

This sales tax holiday holds many benefits for all. However, if you are a business purchasing supplies, pay attention if sales tax was withheld as you may need to pay use tax on the purchases. This holiday applies to individuals making purchases for non-business use. Technically, if you are a business purchasing supplies during this week, you will need to pay use tax on these retail sales if sales tax was exempt during the transaction. More details and the full list of exempt retail items are available in the Sales Tax Holiday FAQs provided by the state.

Back-to-school shopping can be a stressful activity for kids and their parents every year. It is predicted that this sales tax holiday will bring big savings to those shopping and hopefully make their experience a little easier this year.

If you have any questions about how the New Jersey Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday will affect you, contact an Alloy Silverstein advisor today!