Delegate encourages back-to-school shopping during tax holiday
Op-Ed by Ben Cline
I am writing to encourage Virginia taxpayers to take advantage of this year’s Back-To-School Sales Tax Holiday, which is scheduled from Friday, Aug. 3 through Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007.
During this three-day period, certain purchases will be exempt from the 5 percent state and local retail sales tax. The tax reduction will be applied to qualifying purchases of school supplies priced at $20 or less per item, and on articles of clothing and footwear costing $100 or less. It’s a great time to stock up on supplies for the upcoming school year.
The “holiday” was established by legislation that I sponsored last year along with former House Finance Chairman Harry Parrish. The Virginia Department of Taxation estimates that Virginia consumers saved approximately $3.6 million in retail sales tax during the 2006 holiday. It is anticipated that this year, taxpayers may save an estimated $3.8 million in retail sales tax.
The new law also allows retailers to advertise additional items as “tax-free” and absorb the sales tax themselves. This advertising practice will only be allowed during the tax holiday period. The back-to-school shopping season is generally the second biggest shopping season of the year.
On Aug. 3-5, 2007, the second annual Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday will benefit both Virginia families and Virginia’s small businesses. I am hopeful that many people will shop during the holiday in order to take advantage of this tax break and to ensure the school year starts on a positive note.
Ben Cline represents the 24th House District in the Virginia General Assembly.
The views expressed by op-ed writers do not necessarily reflect those of management of The Augusta Free Press.
Related posts:
- Roller endorses Hanger in 24th Op-Ed by Larry Roller What’s all this talk about a great tax increase? The only tax increase was raising the sales tax from 4.5 percent...
- Allen fights back at Kaine remarks Story by Chris Graham U.S. Sen. George Allen isn’t taking the political attacks being lobbed at his former secretary of public safety, Republican Party...
- Tweaking NCLB: Republican delegation to ask feds to ‘back off’ The Top Story by Chris Graham When Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, brought up his concerns with respect to the No Child Left Behind education-accountability...
- Hanger pushes back Story by Chris Graham Emmett Hanger is not going to be pushed around by the local Republican Party apparatus. “A lot of attention has been...
- Can local GOP get back on same page after contentious primary? Story by Chris Graham Republican Party leaders wanted to make it look like they were extending an olive branch out to Sen. Emmett Hanger after...
