Apple this afternoon sent out emails reminding customers in six U.S. states about upcoming sales tax holidays, which will allow customers in these areas to purchase Macs, iPads, and other products with reduced sales tax or no sales tax.
Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Virginia all have sales tax holidays coming up in August, with Apple outlining which products are eligible for the sales tax break in each state.
Every state has different rules for products that can be purchased during the tax holiday, so customers in Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Virginia should check out Apple's tax holiday website for specifics. Dates are as follows:
- Florida - August 2-6
- Massachusetts - August 17-18
- Missouri - August 2-4
- New Mexico - August 2-4
- South Carolina - August 2-4
- Virginia - August 2-4
Many Apple products are eligible for the promotion in each state, including Macs, iPads, the iPod touch, and accessories like the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, though there are varying dollar value caps in each state. Virginia's tax holiday is the most limited, applicable only to cell phone batteries and chargers with a value of $60 or less.
There were also sales tax holidays in Tennessee and Alabama, but those took place in July and are now over.
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These sales tax holidays are intended to allow children to purchase clothing and school supplies tax-free for the upcoming school year. There's some variations on this theme, like Louisiana allows hurricane preparedness supplies tax-free at the same time. Computers are mixed in use, so only a subset of tax-holiday states exempt them.
Revenue lost on exempt items are made up on things that are taxed. People don't pay taxes on food, so the State will have a higher rate applied to normal sales, like cars and TVs.
It also serves as economic stimulus to retailers at a slow time of year. A lot of it is due to the hot weather and people not going out or are gone on vacation and nobody is buying shoes, pens and paper.