2011 Tennessee Sales Tax Holiday

Tennessee General Assembly passed Public Chapter 398 (Tennessee Code Annotated Section 67-6-393) which established an annual sales tax holiday beginning in August of 2006.

The holiday is held in August and normally starts at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ends at 11:59 p.m. on the following Sunday.

Summer Event - The 2011 Summer Sales Tax Holiday is currently set for Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 12:01 a.m. through Sunday, August 7th, 2011 at 11:59 p.m.

The State of Tennessee has also held an occasional spring sales tax holiday too.
Spring Event - There was no word yet on the April 2012 Tax free Holiday but the 2009, 2010 and 2011 event were not held.

Listed below is a breakdown of the items that are tax exempt eligible and those items that are not.

Clothing - $100 or less
Exempt:
Clothing:
Belts .. Caps .. Coats .. Dresses .. Gloves .. Hats .. Hosiery .. Jackets .. Jeans .. Neckties .. Pants .. Scarves .. School uniforms .. Shirts .. Shoes .. Socks .. Sneakers .. Underwear

Taxable:
Clothing Accessories:
Belt Buckles (sold separately) .. Briefcases .. Cosmetics .. Hair Notions .. Handbags .. Jewelry .. Patches and Emblems (sold separately) .. Sewing Equipment and Supplies .. Sewing Materials, such as Thread, Fabric, Yarns and Zippers .. Sunglasses .. Umbrellas .. Wallets

Protective Equipment:
Breathing Masks .. Face Shields .. Hard Hats .. Hearing Protectors .. Helmets .. Paint or Dust Respirators .. Protective Gloves and Welder’s Gloves .. Safety Glasses and Goggles .. Tool Belts

Sports or Recreational Equipment:
Ballet and Tap Shoes .. Cleated or Spiked Athletic Shoes .. Gloves (Baseball, Boxing, Golf) .. Goggles .. Hand and Elbow Guards .. Life Preservers and Vests .. Mouth Guards .. Roller and Ice Skates .. Shin Guards .. Shoulder Pads .. Ski Boots .. Wetsuits and Fins

School Supplies - $100 or less
Exempt:
School Supplies:
Binders .. Book Bags/ Backpacks.. Calculators .. Chalk .. Crayons .. Erasers .. Folders .. Glue .. Lunch Boxes .. Notebooks .. Paper .. Pens .. Pencils .. Rulers .. Scissors .. Tape

School Art Supplies:
Clay and Glazes .. Paints .. Paintbrushes .. Sketch and Drawing Pads .. Watercolors

Taxable:
School Computer Supplies:
Compact Disks .. Computer Printers .. Computer Storage Media .. Diskettes .. Handheld Electronic Schedulers .. Personal Digital Assistants .. Printer Supplies including Paper and Ink

School Instructional Material - Textbooks and workbooks are always exempt from sales tax

Computer - $1,500 or less
Exempt:
Computers with a purchase price of $1,500 or less, not for use in a trade or business, are exempt from sales tax. For purposes of this exemption, a computer is defined as a central processing unit (CPU), along with various other components including monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables to connect components, and preloaded software.

Taxable:
Computer parts, such as monitors, keyboards, speakers, and scanners when not sold in conjunction with a CPU .. Individually purchased software or other software not part of a preloaded software package on the initial purchase of a computer .. Storage media, such as diskettes and compact disks .. Handheld electronic schedulers .. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) .. Computer printers and supplies for printers, such as paper and ink

Some Area Retailers have even extended their hours for shoppers, so make sure to call ahead to your favorite shopping retailer and see if you can get in an extra hour or two of tax free shopping.

For more information please visit the Tennessee Department of Revenue Website

*2011 Update - there has been some legislative talk about changing this event to begin the prior week.