![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-2282804937.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
CEDAR PARK, TEXAS – JUNE 22: School supplies are displayed on shelves at a Target store on June 22, 2026 in Cedar Park, Texas. Retail giants including Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Office Depot have launched their back-to-school sales earlier than usu <\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA – For Philadelphia and South Jersey families, mastering the back-to-school shopping budget may mean crossing state lines.<\/p>\n
By the numbers:<\/p>\n
Unlike other parts of the country, Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents enjoy the year-round perk of everyday clothing and footwear that is exempt from state sales tax.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, when it comes to the rest of the back-to-school list, such as laptops, calculators, and bulk school supplies, local taxes can take a serious bite out of your budget. In Philadelphia, those items are hit with a combined 8% state and local sales tax. In New Jersey, you’ll pay 6.625%.<\/p>\n
New Jersey also permanently repealed its annual back-to-school sales tax holiday in 2024, which means the real financial relief lies with Delaware’s no sales tax policy.<\/p>\n
Shopping strategy <\/p>\n
What you can do:<\/p>\n
To maximize savings without wasting money on gas and tolls, parents should split up their back-to-school supplies list.<\/p>\n
Delaware famously has a 0% sales tax on everything, all year long. So, when it comes time to buy a laptop, graphing calculator, and a cart full of notebooks, binders, and pens, it may be best to head south. Christiana Mall in Newark, has become a hot spot for tax-free back-to-school shopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By making a single strategic trip to Delaware for your electronics and bulk supplies, a family could save upwards of $100 to $150 in taxes alone, making up for the cost of the drive.<\/p>\n
However, since Pennsylvania and New Jersey already exempt clothing and footwear year-round, there’s no benefit to crossing state lines for a clothing haul. Instead, buy your children\u2019s wardrobes locally.<\/p>\n
The Source: Information from this article was sourced from the PA Department of Revenue, NJ Division of Taxation and Federation of Tax Administrators.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia<\/a>Education<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article CEDAR PARK, TEXAS – JUNE 22: School supplies are displayed on shelves at a Target store on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[227,139,539,69,71,70,593],"class_list":["post-259174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-education","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}