2026 Sales Tax Holidays by State: Dates for Every Verified US State

Each entry comes from our state profiles, where the 2026 holiday was read from the state's revenue department, statute or official announcement. The wording we recorded is quoted for each state below, and the source document for every state is listed at the bottom of the page.

We've only included states where that check has been done. A state missing from the "held" list isn't necessarily a state without a holiday. It may just be one we haven't confirmed yet. Those states are listed separately at the end.

A sales tax holiday is a set window when particular items, usually clothing, school supplies and computers under a price limit, can be bought without some or all sales tax. The limits are strict: an item a dollar over the cap is usually taxed in full, and many states exclude accessories, rentals and items bought on layaway.

Price caps and covered items vary a lot from state to state, so read your own state's entry before you shop.

• Alabama: Two holidays: the Severe Weather Preparedness holiday on the last full weekend in February (February 20-22, 2026) and the Back-to-School holiday starting the third Friday in July (July 17-19, 2026); localities opt in separately.
• Arkansas: Arkansas's 2026 sales tax holiday ran from 12:01 a.m. August 1 to 11:59 p.m. August 2, waiving the 6.5% state tax and local taxes on qualifying clothing, electronics, and school and office supplies.
• Connecticut: Sales Tax Free Week ran Sunday, August 16 through Saturday, August 22, 2026, exempting most clothing and footwear priced under $300 per item (up from $100 in prior years).
• Florida: The 2026 Back to School holiday ran Monday, July 20 through Thursday, August 20 and now recurs annually on those dates, exempting clothing, footwear and accessories up to $100 each, school supplies up to $50, learning aids up to $30, and personal computers up to $1,500.
• Iowa: Clothing and footwear priced under $100 per article are exempt from state and local option sales tax from 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday of August through midnight Saturday (August 7-8, 2026).
• Maryland: Back-to-school tax-free week runs from the second Sunday in August through the following Saturday (August 9-15, 2026), exempting clothing and footwear priced $100 or less (accessories excluded) and the first $40 of a backpack or bookbag.
• Massachusetts: Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026: most retail items of up to $2,500 bought for personal use were exempt, excluding meals, motor vehicles, alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
• Mississippi: Friday, July 10 through Sunday, July 12, 2026: clothing, footwear and school supplies priced under $100 per item were exempt.
• New Mexico: Back-to-school GRT holiday from 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 31, 2026 through midnight Sunday, August 2, 2026, covering clothing and shoes under $100 per item, desktop, laptop, tablet or notebook computers up to $1,000, related computer hardware up to $500 and school supplies under $30 per item (Section 7-9-95 NMSA 1978).
• Ohio: Ohio's permanent holiday under S.B. 226 runs the first Friday of August and the following Saturday and Sunday (August 7-9, 2026), exempting clothing priced $75 or less per item and school supplies or school instructional materials priced $20 or less per item.
• Oklahoma: Clothing and footwear priced under $100 per item is exempt during the first Friday through Sunday of August, which was August 7 to 9 in 2026. Accessories, athletic and protective gear, and rentals are excluded.
• South Carolina: From 12:01 a.m. Friday, August 7, 2026 through midnight Sunday, August 9, 2026, clothing and accessories, footwear, school supplies, computers, software, printers and printer supplies, and certain bed and bath supplies were exempt from the 6% state tax and local taxes collected by SCDOR; watches, jewelry, eyewear, cosmetics, wallets, furniture, rentals and layaway were excluded.
• Tennessee: July 31 through August 2, 2026: clothing and school and art supplies priced at $100 or less per item, and personal-use computers, laptops and tablets priced at $1,500 or less, were tax-free (the 2027 holiday is July 30 through August 1, 2027).
• Texas: Three statutory holidays: emergency preparation supplies on April 25-27, 2026 (generators under $3,000, other listed items under $300, Tax Code 151.3565); ENERGY STAR and water-efficient products over Memorial Day weekend, May 23-25, 2026 (Tax Code 151.333); and clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks under $100 on August 7-9, 2026 (Tax Code 151.326-151.327).
• Virginia: August 7-9, 2026: school supplies up to $20 per item, clothing and footwear up to $100, portable generators up to $1,000, gas-powered chainsaws up to $350, chainsaw accessories and other hurricane preparedness items up to $60, and ENERGY STAR or WaterSense products up to $2,500 for home use.

The calendar is lopsided. Alabama opened the year with a severe weather preparedness holiday, Feb 20 to 22. Alabama and Texas held more than one, with Texas running 3 separate holidays covering emergency supplies, energy-efficient appliances and back-to-school shopping.

Everything else clusters around the start of the school year. Leaving aside Florida's month-long window, the weekend of August 7 to 9 alone was covered by holidays in Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia.

Most holidays are a weekend: the typical one runs 3 days. Florida is the big exception. Its back-to-school holiday ran Jul 20 to Aug 20, 32 days in all, and now recurs on those dates every year.

Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota had no holiday among the states we verified. The reasons differ:

• No sales tax to suspend. Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon have no state sales tax, so a holiday would have nothing to remove. In Alaska, some boroughs and cities charge their own sales tax, but there is no statewide holiday.
• No item-based holiday. North Carolina and South Dakota do have a sales tax but no item holiday.

Here's how each of those states describes it:

• North Carolina: None. North Carolina's annual August sales tax holiday and November Energy Star holiday were repealed effective July 1, 2014, and items once exempt during those holidays are now taxed at the general rate.
• South Dakota: No item-based holiday; the Department of Revenue describes the 2023 cut to a temporary 4.2% state rate as a 'sales tax holiday', and the rate returns to 4.5% on July 1, 2027.

For Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, our profiles don't yet hold a confirmed 2026 answer. Several of these states have held holidays in past years, and some never have. Check your state revenue department's website before planning a purchase around one.

It saves exactly the sales tax on what you buy, nothing more, so on a single shirt or a pack of pencils the saving is small. Where it adds up is on bigger items with high caps, like computers in Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico or South Carolina, or a family's full back-to-school list.

Watch for two catches. First, the price cap usually applies per item, and going a cent over means the whole item is taxed. Second, a holiday doesn't stop a store from raising prices or ending a sale, so compare the final price, not just the tax.

To see what sales tax you'd pay on a purchase on a normal day, use the sales tax calculator, or a state page such as the Texas sales tax calculator, Florida sales tax calculator, Tennessee sales tax calculator or Virginia sales tax calculator. For the regular rate in every state, see sales tax by state in 2026.