MO tax-free holiday for schools supplies coming up! (St. Louis: sales, purchases)

[CarrieNeno]

Just a few shorts weeks before it is back to the grind for St. Louis kids. For parents, that means just a few short weeks to snatch up the ever-growing list of necessary school supplies.
If looking for some financial relief, the State of Missouri is offering a back-to-school sales tax holiday weekend, as they do every year.

Nitty Gritty:

August 6 through August 8, the state’s 4.225 percent sales tax will not be assessed on certain purchases made in **Missouri, including clothing, school supplies and computers.

Missouri sales tax holiday items include...

■Clothing that does not have a value of more than $100. The state’s definition of clothing includes traditional apparel, including footwear, which is worn on or about the body. It also includes material to make school uniforms or other school clothing. It does not include accessories such as watches, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands and belt buckles.

■School supplies, not exceeding $50 per purchase, that are used in a standard classroom for educational purposes. School supplies include, but are not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, chalk, maps and globes. The definition for school supplies does not include watches, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable telephones, copiers or other office equipment.

■Personal computers that don’t cost more than $3,500 and computer peripheral devices that don’t exceed $3,500. A personal computer can be a laptop, desktop or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, display monitor, keyboard and other related devices. Peripheral devices include items such as a disk drive, memory module, CD drive, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, speakers, printer, scanner, sound card or video card. Computer software is considered a school supply and is free from sales tax if its value is less than $350.

**NOTE: some cities have chosen NOT to participate and opt out of the holiday. Check this site prior to your shopping excursion to ensure savings: http://dor.mo.gov/tax/business/sales...ool/cities.php