Proposal would add tax-free weekend items
Bill wants to raise ceiling and include laptops, tablets.
Parents have saved thousands of dollars shopping during the backto-school tax-free weekend, but a proposed Ohio bill could increase their savings in future years.
Ohio’s back-to-school tax-free weekend begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday and runs through Sunday. During the weekend event, all clothing and shoes that cost less than $75 and school instruction materials and supplies that cost less than $20 are exempt of taxes.
A shopper in Montgomery County, where the sales tax is 7.5 percent, will save $7.50 per $100 of qualifying tax-free items. If Montgomery County families spend the National Retail Federation’s expected average of $700 on qualifying back-to-school needs, they could save $52.50.
“This is a sales tax cut for middle class families. We know that if you have two kids going to school, you’re going to spend hundreds of dollars every year on school clothing and supplies. And over
the 12-year period, or maybe 16-year period, that your kids are going to school, that’s thousands of dollars,” said state Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg. “This sales tax cut will result in hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, for our citizens.”
The retailers will also provide other incentives to get shoppers in the doors, said Alex Boehnke, spokesman for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants.
“With the savings provided by the sales tax holiday weekend, working families’ hardearned dollars will go further, giving them greater purchasing power and greater piece of mind,” Boehnke said.
The holiday, which was started five years ago, is a win for the retail industry, which employs tens of thousands in the Dayton area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retail establishments are expected to see increased sales, Antani said.
Antani wants to boost the savings for area families, he said. In March, he introduced a bill to increase the cost to $100 for both clothing and school supplies to be eligible for tax-free weekend.
“That’s critical for our high school students who need graphing calculators in order for geometry class or an algebra or calculus,” Antani said. “The bill also goes a step further and ... it will include laptops and tablets. We know that many students are going to need laptops and tablets for back to school.”
Paulette Larson was shopping with her three grandchildren Wednesday, an outing the four take every year, she said. Larson said if more items qualified, she would be more likely to buy the higher dollar items during backto-school shopping instead of waiting until other bigger sales.
“If I were going to be home this weekend, we would probably come this weekend because of the savings,” Larson said. “If they would expand it to other things, that would be great . ... We wouldn’t buy it at Christmas. We would get it at tax-free time, save the tax.”
Antani’s bill has had one of three required hearings, but is waiting on a new Ways and Means committee chairman to proceed, he said.