Sales tax holiday gives shoppers a break
Annual weekend kicks in across Massachusetts
Massachusetts shoppers flocked into stores Saturday for an end-of-summer tradition — the state’s sales tax holiday, and the promise of saving a few bucks amid inflation and high interest rates.
Offered by the state for most of the past two decades, and signed into law by former governor Charlie Baker in 2018, the weekend-long initiative waives the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax for many purchases under $2,500, aside from some items including meals, vehicles, tobacco, and alcohol.
It turns what would be a quiet August weekend for stores into something like a weekend during the holiday season, according to Jon Hurst, the president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
“It’s a great stimulus to our economy,” Hurst said in a phone interview Saturday. “My members tell me that these are sales [that] can make or break their entire month.”
The bump from the weekend’s sales is a huge boon to the state’s businesses, he said, to the tune of about a half-billion dollars in spending over the course of the weekend.
Even places that don’t get the sales tax waiver — like restaurants — get a boost in business because so many more customers are out, he said.
The holiday has its critics, who point to its impact on the state’s coffers: Last year, the state Department of Revenue estimated it cost Massachusetts more than $36 million in sales tax revenue.
But Hurst argued that buying power has taken a hit this year due to economic factors, and the sales tax holiday allows people to catch a break on expenses like back-to-school purchases, or household items they have been waiting to buy.
Retailers have also faced flat sales in recent months, due in part to rising costs of operations, along with inflation and interest rates, he said.
Many stores also offer discounts on top of the waived sales tax to entice customers, he said.
“The sales tax holiday is a great opportunity to remind consumers [about] the importance of shopping local, and keeping dollars local,” Hurst said.
Governor Maura Healey urged people to take advantage of the sales tax holiday.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to give your local businesses a boost and save some” money, she wrote in a social media post on Saturday.
In Saugus, Lauren Folino, along with her husband Luke Blaeser, and her mother, Donna Folino, took advantage of the pause on taxes to pick up new cellphones and a television.
They’ve looked forward to upgrading their devices for months, she said.
Folino does some shopping online, but said it was nice being able to drive to a store and pick up the items she wanted.
“We were gonna wait until Black Friday. But we thought, ‘Why not just go now?’ Then we don’t have to wait a few months,” Folino said in a phone interview. “It was nice to have things to look forward to in months that aren’t November.”