According to data provided by the credit card company Capital One, the average family spends close to $1,000 on K-12 back-to-school supplies and almost $1,400 for back-to-college supplies. Those costs have risen more than 40% since 2015.
In recent years, many states have sought to offset those costs by providing sales tax holidays prior to the beginning of the school year. Mississippi is one of 19 states that exempts certain purchases from the state’s 7% general sales tax.
The legislature extended the school supplies tax holiday from 24 to 48 hours in January. It also moved the date of the holiday from August to the second week of July to accommodate the adjusted school calendars that many districts have adopted. K-12 public schools in the Golden Triangle begin classes July 23-25. The state’s sales tax holiday starts at 12:01 a.m. Friday and runs through midnight Sunday.
Unlike the state’s other sales tax holiday – the 2nd Amendment Sales Tax Holiday that exempts firearms, ammo and hunting equipment from sales tax – the school supplies holiday is neither a show of ideological grandstanding or a tax-break for nonessential purchases.
For many families, providing school supplies for their children is a costly burden. According to the same Capital One report, 39% of shoppers report trimming their budgets in other areas in order to afford higher costs for back-to-school supplies.
A family that spends $900 on back-to-school supplies sees a saving of $63 during the sales tax holiday. That may seem like a small amount, but $63 purchases an awful lot of needed items such as pencils, notebooks, glue sticks, etc.
Mississippi’s sales tax holiday is far from the most generous among those states that do provide exemption. It is limited to clothing, footwear and school supplies with sales prices of less than $100 per item. An item that costs more than $100 is taxed on the entire purchase price rather than that part of the purchase that exceeds $100.
Other states do much better to help families defray these costs, especially for essential items for college students. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia provide exemptions ranging from $500 to $1,500 for computers/electronics and software purchases.
When you compare the relatively small number of items exempted during the state’s school supplies tax holiday to the sweeping exemptions provided during the state’s 2nd Amendment tax holiday, it says much about our legislators’ distorted priorities.
While we appreciate the legislature’s moves to expand the school supplies tax holiday to two days and move it to July, there is obviously much more that can be done to help families provide these school essentials.
The legislature should bite the bullet – pun intended – and provide more of this kind of support for our schoolchildren.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
