Shopping for Back-to-School…Wait, Already?

We're just a week out of the Independence Day holiday weekend, and about three and a half weeks away from the 2021 Missouri State Fair.

Probably, the last thing you're thinking about right now is shopping for school supplies for the upcoming year, but you may want to make a mental note of these dates -- August 6-8. These are the three days where you can shop for back to school items with no sales tax.

It's always an exciting time for the kids. Shopping for their needed supplies to get them ready for the new school year. I remember for me it was a trip to JC Penney on the square in Butler, MO for my clothes, i.e., some new shirts, a couple pair of new jeans, socks, underwear and my new pair of sneakers. Of course my mom always hoped that my feet would stop growing so I could make it through the year without another trip to the store for a bigger size.

Of course to go along with the new duds we had to find the posted sheet for our upcoming grade to find out school supplies you would need. So as kids, we were always excited about the prospect of getting "new stuff". Our parents...maybe not so much.

The good thing in Missouri is there is a little bit of help financially when it comes to buying these items. A tax-free holiday is coming up in August, saving consumers from paying sales tax on certain school-related items.

For Missouri these are the items that are tax free :

• Clothing and shoes — $100 or less per item
•  School supplies — $50 or less per purchase (exception: graphing calculators must be $150 or less).
• Computers and related equipment — $1,500 or less per item.
• Computer software — $350 or less.

For the details on what falls under "tax-free", visit this website, and happy shopping!