What Qualifies For Illinois' School Supply Tax Holiday

As an Illinois mom with two daughters, I have officially entered the season I like to call “Goodbye Money, Hello School Year.”

Over the next few weeks, I'll be buying notebooks, folders, pencils, markers, gym shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes, and somehow paying school fees that seem to appear out of thin air and I'm dreading every moment of it.

Every year I tell myself I'll be prepared.

At the end of every school year I put all the unused and salvageable school supplies in a box for the following year. Yet, I still end up staring at a school supply list wondering why students need 47 specific items in six different colors that change every year.

That's why I'm actually excited about some good tax news from Illinois.

Illinois' Back-to-School Tax Holiday

To give overwhelmed parents a bit of a break, the State of Illinois' Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday is returning August 7 through August 16.

This tax holiday is meant to help families and teachers save a little money on school shopping, but unfortunately, it's only a tax break, not tax free shopping.

During this 10-day period, the state's portion of the sales tax drops from 6.25% to 1.25% on qualifying purchases.

So now the big question is: What purchases qualify?

Back-to-School Tax Holiday Qualifying Purchases

Before you start dreaming about saving money on new laptops or gaming systems, just know that's not how it works.

The Illinois Revenue website says:

Items include qualifying clothing and footwear with a retail selling price of less than $125 per item and certain school supplies used by students in the course of study. School supplies are not subject to the $125 threshold.

School supply items that qualify include:

Backpacks and book bags
Binders and folders
Calculators
Composition books and notebooks
Crayons and markers
Glue sticks and tape
Highlighters
Lunch boxes
Paper and poster board
Pens and pencils
Rulers and scissors
Pencil boxes and sharpeners

The $125 price limit set by the State applies primarily to clothing and shoes, not the school supplies listed above.

Will this tax holiday completely erase the pain of back-to-school shopping? Nope, but when you're buying supplies for multiple kids, every little bit helps.

Now I just need to mentally prepare myself for the craziness in the school supply aisles starting August 7.