Missouri's annual sales tax holiday set for this weekend

Aug. 3—Missouri's annual back-to-school sales tax holiday begins Friday and runs through Sunday, during which certain back-to-school purchases such as school supplies, computers and clothing will be exempt from state sales tax.

During the weekend, the state's portion of the tax rate, or 4.225%, will not be charged on the following items:

—Clothing that does not have a taxable value of more than $100. Eligible clothing items include any article of apparel intended to be worn on or about the body, including footwear and disposable diapers for infants or adults. Cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing are also included. Not included are watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands or belt buckles.

—School supplies, not exceeding $50 per purchase, that are used in a standard classroom for educational purposes. School supplies include, but are not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, chalk, maps, globes, handheld calculators, graphing calculators that do not have a taxable value of more than $150, and computer software that does not have a taxable value of more than $350. Not included are watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture or fixtures.

—Personal computers that do not cost more than $1,500 and computer peripheral devices that do not cost more than $1,500. A personal computer can be a laptop, desktop or tower computer system that consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor and a keyboard. Peripheral devices include items such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, soundcard or video card.

Shoppers don't have to be Missouri residents to participate.

Area cities and counties opting not to participate in the holiday, where local sales tax still will be collected, are Joplin, Carl Junction, Carthage, Cassville, Granby, Jane, Liberal, Loma Linda, Monett, Mount Vernon, Neosho, Noel, Purdy and Washburn; and Jasper, Newton, Lawrence and Barry counties.