Reporter: Amanda Wideman
After years of Arkansans driving to Oklahoma for its tax free weekend in February 2011 lawmakers in Arkansas decided to help keep that money here so they approved Act 757.
Act 757 is a temporary period when state and local sales taxes are not collected or paid on the purchase of certain products. In other words Arkansas’ own tax free weekend. This was the second tax free weekend in Arkansas.
The weekend will be the first Saturday and Sunday in August every year. It was designed to make the burden of buying back to school supplies and clothes a little lighter for parents and students.
The holiday is specific to certain items that are tax exempt. The items that are tax exempt are clothing, accessories, school supplies, school art supplies, and school instructional materials. The clothing must be less than one hundred dollars per item and the accessories must be less than 50 dollars for those to be tax exempt.
There is no limit to how many things you can buy during the holiday. For example you can buy two 75 dollar pairs of jeans, three 30 dollar shirts, and as many school supplies you could ever need. The clothing alone is two hundred and 40 dollars but since each particular item is under one hundred dollars it is completely tax exempt.
There are some restrictions when it comes to certain items that would be considered as clothing or in another one of the tax exempt categories but it may not be tax exempt.
For more information on what items are tax exempt and what items aren’t as well as information on items that you have a coupon for or are on lay away please visit http://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/offices/exciseTax/salesanduse/Documents/holidayInstructions.pdf.