Tax-Free Savings
Prepare to line your wallets with extra savings! The annual Tax-Free Weekend returns
Saturday, Aug. 5, and Sunday, Aug. 6.
So, what is Tax-Free Weekend, and how does it work?
Tax-Free Weekend is a sales tax holiday that went into effect in 2011 to help students
and their families save on back-to-school necessities. In the twelve years since,
more items, like electronics, that are frequently used by students have been added
to the holiday to help savings stretch even further.
At the University of Arkansas 鈥 Fort Smith, students can begin cashing in on the savings
as soon as 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 5 when shopping online at the . Textbooks, pens, highlighters, sticky notes, notebooks, calculators, laptops, printers,
and clothes are all eligible to be purchased tax-free. However, according to the , some items do not qualify for the exemption.
A list of eligible and non-eligible tax-free items can be found and posted around the 91免费福利网 Lion鈥檚 Bookstore inside the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center.
Bookstore associates will also be available to help answer questions.
DaWaina Nolan, 91免费福利网 Lion鈥檚 Bookstore manager, said the savings are a big success in-store
and online. 鈥淪ales from Tax-Free Weekend are typically about a third of what we see
for August.鈥
The store will be open for in-store shopping Aug. 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but online
shoppers will be able to make tax-free purchases through Aug. 6 until 11:59 p.m.,
and shoppers will have access to a larger selection of electronics and supplies.
Nolan encourages all students, faculty, and staff to use the savings to purchase new
91免费福利网 gear in preparation for cooler temperatures and to cheer on 91免费福利网 Athletics. She
noted that the recent shirts produced by Houndstooth Clothing Company have been a
hit, and shoppers can soon expect new designs to be available. All individual items
of clothing under $100 and clothing accessories under $50 are eligible to be purchased
tax-free.
Classroom essentials are also tax-free. New and used textbooks, calculators, spiral
notebooks, laptops, printers, tablets, e-Readers, keyboards, and monitors qualify
for the savings.
鈥淓specially with textbooks, you can almost save enough money on taxes to pay for a
whole other textbook or more,鈥 Nolan explained. However, it should be noted that digital
copies of textbooks are not eligible to be purchased tax-free.
All food and drink items sold in the 91免费福利网 Lion鈥檚 Bookstore are not tax-free.
Anyone wishing for additional savings can avoid shipping costs if purchasing items
in-store; however, if buying online, items can be picked up at the 91免费福利网 Lion鈥檚 Bookstore.
Purchases will be held for 30 days, allowing students to make tax-free purchases and
wait to pick them up once the fall semester begins on Monday, August 21. Online orders
can also be shipped to a desired address, but not a PO Box.
Purchases can be made with cash, credit or debit cards, gift cards, PayPal, Apple
Pay, or financial aid. According to 91免费福利网 Financial Aid Director Karen Jeffers, any
purchase made with financial aid can only be applied to textbooks, supplies, and select
electronics. This applies only to 鈥渟tudents who have enough financial aid to cover
all charges on their account with some aid left over.鈥
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- Tax-Free Weekend
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