So Long Summer, Hello Savings: Florida’s Permanent Back-to-School Tax Holiday Explained
With summer winding down and a new school year on the horizon, Florida families can look forward to the, now annual, Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday. This will run from Friday, August 1st through Sunday, August 31st, 2025. This month-long tradition is now a permanent fixture every August, making back-to-school shopping easier and more affordable for years to come.
During this month, you can shop a wide variety of back-to-school essentials exempt from Florida’s usual 6% state sales tax. Here’s a list of some of these items:
- Clothing, footwear, wallets, bags, backpacks, fanny packs, and diaper bags priced at $100 or less per item.
- School supplies priced at $50 or less per item, including; notebooks, binders, folders, pens, lunch boxes, crayons, glue, and more.
- Learning aids and jigsaw puzzles priced at $30 or less such as flashcards, interactive books, memory games, stacking blocks, and educational toys.
- Personal computers and certain computer-related accessories priced at $1,500 or less.
Wondering about online purchases? If you ship qualifying items to a Florida address and complete your purchase in August, those items are eligible. So, don’t worry Amazon shoppers, you can still save yourself a trip to the store.
Be sure to keep in mind that the Back-to-School sales tax does outline several specific exclusions. Here are some to be aware of:
- Items over the price limits (clothing items over $100, school supplies of $50, computer/accessories over $1,500, and learning aids priced over $30).
- Rental or repairs of eligible items.
- Certain specific items like briefcases, suitcases, garment bags, jewelry, umbrellas, watches, swim fins, roller skates, helmets, etc.
- Printers, computer paper, cell phones, video game consoles, etc.
- Sales within theme parks, entertainment venues, hotels, or airports are excluded. So, that Hogwarts backpack from Universal Studios isn’t eligible this time.
To see any other specifics of what is or is not included in this tax exemption, please refer to the Florida Tax Information Publication here: https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/tips/Documents/TIP_25A01-08.pdf
This longer, recurring holiday gives Florida families and retailers added flexibility and savings during the busy back-to-school season.