Tax Free Shopping for Back to School....

Magick1 · #1 08-04-2008, 10:09 AM

don't let anyone tell you different, shopping with a 5 year old for "big girl" school clothes is not fun, even if there is no tax during our tax free holiday.

Boy, what a long day Friday was in our house.

**lynnzop**[$] · #2 08-04-2008, 10:20 AM

LOL.

I don't shop the tax free holiday. Too many people to deal with for $7 savings.

I have to shop for uniforms this week. Bah.

Magick1 · #3 08-04-2008, 01:44 PM

I normally don't either, but I took Friday off of work to get in there early and beat the crowds.

With hubby still unemployed, I was trying to save anything I could and yet get the babester clothed for school. I was hoping to make it a "big girl" exciting time for her...but she got bored in the first 15 minutes in a store and did not want to do any shopping.

(She saw a jumpy place for the kids < 5 years old to play in the mall and I told her that we couldn't do this today as it was school shopping...she wasn't impressed)

frazzledspice · #4 08-04-2008, 11:38 PM

My state's Constitution says the only tax that can be raised without a Constitutional amendment is the sales tax....

Consequently, we have 9.25% sales tax, and they wouldn't consider a tax free twenty minutes much less a whole day.....

My son who's teaching in Asia came back for a visit and wanted to get a new laptop (they're cheaper here.) I told him to wait till he got to his brother in St. Louis and he'd save thirty bucks (3% of a $1K purchase, possibly more.)

They finally gave a small tax break on groceries, and now the sales tax on groceries is "only" 6.25% But we still pay sales taxes on eyeglasses, contact lenses, non-prescription drugs, etc.

My only respite comes from shopping online, and they're starting to close that, too.

So yeah, if I'm in NJ when we go to NY to visit, we shop for clothes....

**Prepoia**[$] · #5 08-05-2008, 12:40 AM

We never have a tax free day here either. Our sales tax is only 6% raised about a hundred years ago from 4%. It was a "temporary" raise lol

*emeleel* · #6 08-05-2008, 01:00 AM

We have a tax free weekend here, but it's only on clothes, books, school supplies and computers (inc. software and supplies) up to a certain amount. Plus, the only *definite* tax break is the state's 4% - most communities wipe out their local taxes, too, but they don't have to.

Magick1 · #7 08-05-2008, 09:02 AM

Our tax free days are basically clothes and shoes. School supplies don't count.

Our tax rate is 6 or 7% depending on if you like where there are individual town taxes of 1% added on or not. Everything, basically, is taxed except for basic "real" food (not fast food, junk food, candy, etc).

*emeleel* · #8 08-05-2008, 09:35 AM

Tax rate here is 8% total, back in Montgomery it was 10% total. Everything, and I mean *everything* is taxed, if it's for sale. Even "real" food. Rx meds aren't, but anything OTC. Everything. Even leases and rentals in some areas now have a little bit of tax on them, just not the full amount.

We do have really low property taxes, though.

**lynnzop**[$] · #9 08-05-2008, 10:05 AM

I'm moving back to South Dakota. Tax-free every day.

Of course, their roads SUCK and the weather is even worse. But I guess you have to take what you get.

frazzledspice · #10 08-06-2008, 12:35 AM

You said it! But Vermillion was a dear little town with the friendliest people I've ever met anywhere (although our best friends there have moved on, too.)

When my hubby went to Gateway we could have moved to the Iowa side or the South Dakota side. Iowa was a tax hell (it was worse than New York, and that's saying a lot!) Their sales tax was only 5% at the time, and there wasn't any tax on food, but property taxes were higher than in South Dakota (equivalent, I'd say, to New York's) and their income tax topped out at 10%---with few deductions. As my hubby would say, un-effin-believable!

Of course the people of North Sioux City had the best of both worlds, because they shopped in Iowa and lived in South Dakota with no income taxes.

Yes, road clearing was dreadful, especially when Janklow fired the highway department and told farmers to clear the road, per diem, in the winter.

And yes, he sent chain gangs of prisoners in orange jumpsuits to wire the public schools for the internet.

But he was an exceptionally creepy man (I think he's in jail for hit and run now) and I hope things have improved since I've been gone.