{"id":373087,"date":"2026-07-14T21:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373087\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T21:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:27:08","slug":"texas-tax-free-weekend-returns-before-the-school-year-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373087\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas’ tax free weekend returns before the school year. What to know."},"content":{"rendered":"

Before millions of Texas students return to school<\/a>, families can save money with a tax-free weekend.<\/p>\n

The 2026 back-to-school sales tax holiday \u2014 which retailers often pair with more deals \u2014 will run from Aug. 7-9. Last year, officials predicted that the holiday would save families $133.2 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most Houston-area school districts begin classes<\/a>\u00a0the week of Aug. 10.<\/p>\n

Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $874 on back-to-school clothing and supplies, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most clothing, shoes, school supplies and backpacks are tax exempt for the entire weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most school supplies, including folders, notebooks, pens, pencils, and paper, also qualify.<\/p>\n

Exceptions to clothing include jewelry, watches and other accessories; consumers\u00a0still have to pay sales tax on those.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While lunch boxes and book bags are tax-exempt, other bags \u2014 such as purses, wallets, briefcases, luggage and computer bags \u2014 are not.<\/p>\n

Buyers can purchase qualifying items tax-free at any Texas store or from an online or catalog seller that does business in Texas. Purchases can be made in-store and online or by telephone, mail or custom order.<\/p>\n

Most retailers do not require an exemption certificate.<\/p>\n

According to the Texas Comptroller’s website, if you pay sales tax on any qualifying items during the sales tax holiday, you may ask the seller for a refund of the tax paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Items that cost more than $100 on their own \u2014 with shipping and\u00a0handling included \u2014 are not tax free. Anything bought before or after the holiday window does not qualify, and no tax refund is available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas also offers a tax-free holiday in April ahead of hurricane season. On Memorial Day weekend, buyers can purchase certain energy- and water-efficient products sales tax-free.<\/p>\n

Texas charges a base sales tax of 6.25%. Local jurisdictions, like Houston, can add up to 2%, bringing the total rate to a maximum of 8.25%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before millions of Texas students return to school, families can save money with a tax-free weekend. The 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-373087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}