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By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer 

SHELBY COUNTY – The state of Alabama will hold its 19th annual back-to-school sales tax holiday beginning on Friday, July 19 at 12:01 a.m. and ending Sunday, July 21 at midnight.

Scheduled by law to take place on the third full weekend of July and first held in 2006, the tax-free weekend gives state residents the opportunity to purchase certain necessary school supplies, computers and clothing free of a state sales tax ahead of the forthcoming school year.

According to the Alabama Department of Revenue, counties and municipalities may also provide for the exemption of covered items from county or municipal sales taxes during the same time period and under the same terms, conditions and definitions as provided for the state sales tax holiday.

ALDOR has currently listed that Alabaster, Calera, Chelsea, Columbiana, Helena, Hoover, Indian Springs, Montevallo, Pelham, Vincent, Westover and Wilsonville are all among the list of municipalities within Shelby County that are participating in the Back-To-School Sales Tax Holiday this year.

Shelby County will also be participating on the county level, meaning that residents in those cities will be exempt from city, county and state sales taxes over the weekend on applicable items.

For clothing, general use clothing carrying a cost of $100 or less per item will be applicable under the provisions. Clothing accessories, cosmetics, protective equipment and sports or recreational equipment are not applicable and will not carry tax-free status over the weekend.

For computers, computer software and school computer supplies, a single purchase with a sales price of $750 or less will be applicable for tax-free status. For a purchase to be eligible, a computer may be a laptop, desktop or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit and devices such as a display monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers sold together as a computer set. Computer parts and devices not sold as part of a package with the CPU will not qualify for the exemption however.

Items commonly used by a student in a course of study in which a computer is used will also be eligible and may include computer storage media such as flash-drives and compact disks. Handheld electronic schedulers, personal digital assistants, computer printers and printer supplies for computers such as printer paper and ink are also eligible. However, cell-phones will not be included under these provisions.

Traditional school supplies, school art supplies and school instructional materials—all of which must carry a sales price of $50 or less per item—will also be included as eligible items over the weekend.

Binders, book bags, calculators, composition books, crayons, erasers, folders, glue, index cards, lunch boxes, markers, paper, pencils, pencil boxes, pens, rulers, scissors and writing tablets will all carry tax-free status.

Art supplies such as clay, glazes, paints, paintbrushes and sketch and drawing pads will also be tax free alongside reference materials like maps, globes and required textbooks with a sales price of more than $30 and less than $50.

Other books are also eligible under the tax-free weekend that carry a sales price of $30 or less per book. Magazines, newspapers and any other document printed or offered for sale in a non-bound form will not be eligible.

It is also stipulated that all tax-free status items are only applicable when purchased for noncommercial purposes.

For a full list of items that are included, those interested can visit Revenue.alabama.gov/ultraviewer/viewer/basic_viewer/index.html?form=2024/03/2024-Back-to-School-Sales-Tax-Holiday-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

For more information regarding the tax holiday, individuals may contact the Sales and Use Tax Division of the Alabama Department of Revenue at 334-242-1490 or 866-576-6531.