Sales tax holiday in Virginia this weekend includes school supplies, clothing

Virginia’s annual sales tax holiday is ringing in back-to-school season.

The three-day holiday starts Friday and ends at midnight Sunday. Shoppers can buy qualifying school supplies, clothing, footwear and other specialty items tax-free.

Items eligible for the deal include:

• School supplies that cost $20 or less per item.
• Clothing and footwear at $100 or less per item.
• Hurricane and emergency preparedness products, including portable generators, gas-powered chainsaws, chainsaw accessories and other preparedness items.
• Energy Star and WaterSense products purchased for home or personal use.

Those items are exempt from Virginia’s sales tax — a 4.3% state tax plus a 1% local option tax. The additional 0.7% tax applied to products purchased in the Hampton Roads region will also be removed — resulting in total savings of about 6%.

A full list of qualifying items is available on the Virginia Department of Taxation website.

Virginia has offered a sales tax break in time for back-to-school shopping since 2006. The holiday was combined with other tax-free events into an annual holiday in 2015.

North Carolina halted its annual sales tax holiday in 2013, but nearby states — including Maryland, West Virginia and South Carolina — also hold tax-free weekends ahead of the school year.

Ali Sullivan, 757-677-1974, ali.sullivan@virginiamedia.com