Shoppers who take advantage of Missouri’s annual sales tax holiday will see a bigger discount than they are used to.
This year’s Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday Aug. 4-6 will include waiving county and city sales taxes in addition to the state’s tax.
The exemption applies in general to school supplies, clothes and electronic devices intended for educational use, including computers and software. Not everything qualifies to receive the exemption, and price limits apply. Those limits are detailed on the Missouri Department of Revenue’s website.
The exemption can also be applied to purchases made over the internet. It runs from 12:01 a.m. Friday to midnight Sunday. The first day of school for Springfield Public School students is Tuesday, Aug. 22.
Tax breakdown
Purchases made within the city limits of Springfield carry a total sales tax of 8.1%. The rate is combined from three entities:
- The city of Springfield, which charges 2.125 cents for every dollar. That includes a 1-cent general tax, .¼-cent capital improvements tax, ⅛-cent transportation tax and ¾-cent pension sales tax.
- Greene County, which charges 1.75%.
- The state of Missouri, which gets the biggest share of the sales tax at 4.225%.
In previous years, cities, counties and other taxing entities were allowed to opt out of the weekend-long event, which exempted back-to-school purchases from sales tax.
That has changed, however, thanks to a new tax in Missouri on online sales. A law passed in the wake of a Supreme Court decision allowing sales taxes to be collected on online purchases also removed the opt-out clause of Missouri’s sales tax holiday, according to a report from the Missouri Independent.
Political subdivisions that previously opted out will see an average decrease of about $465,677, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill, passed in 2021. Springfield, however, stands to miss out on more, because of the city’s size. For the upcoming fiscal year, the city anticipates more than 36% of its $495,690,888 budget to come from sales and use taxes, according to Daily Citizen reporting.
