Archives > News Update
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
RSS
Share
Tax-free weekend begins Friday
By Kaitlin Pennell and Anthony Tosie
From Aug. 17 through 19, Texans will get a break from paying sales taxes during the statewide tax-free weekend. Malls and shopping centers across the state are preparing for the hectic shopping weekend ahead by providing new promotions and special events.
In order to accommodate large crowds, many malls, such as Frisco's Stonebriar Centre Mall, will extend their hours for the weekend. During tax-free weekend, Stonebriar will be open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday -- two extra hours from its normal hours. Sunday hours -- noon to 6 p.m. -- will stay the same, however.
A spokeswoman for Stonebriar said the mall has become accustomed to the busy weekend since it first opened in 2000.
Schuch added that although the mall sees more shoppers, most stores don't require any additional security.
Tax-free weekend was created in 1999 by the Texas Legislature. Originally, the event was held during the first weekend of August, but because of a new school year schedule the event was moved to the third weekend of the month. The tax-free policy, however, has not changed: most items under $100 are exempt from taxes except for some items such as accessories, sewing supplies and specialty athletic shoes.
If an item costs more than $99.99, the sales tax required will be applicable for the entire purchase cost. Sales tax is only considered on an item-by-item basis; if a shopper purchases $300 worth of qualifying items and all items cost less than $300, then he or she won't pay sales tax on any of the items.
Shoppers will save approximately $8 for every $100 they spent on qualifying items. Some of these items include most clothing and footwear items, backpacks, and school supplies.
During tax-free weekend, customers can place items on layaway and not pay sales tax, "even if delivery is made after the exemption period," according to state law. Items that are purchased with the use of a raincheck, however, will still have sales taxes applied if the item is purchased after tax-free weekend.
Francis Neely, assistant manager at Wet Seal in Stonebriar, said the store anticipates a large influx of back-to-school shoppers.
"It's always extremely busy on tax-free weekend," Neely said. "Our tax-free weekend crowd usually consists of high school and middle school students who are shopping with their parents to get their wardrobes refreshed. There's definitely a lot more traffic in the mall on tax-free weekend."
Neely also said the store has run numerous promotions leading up to tax-free weekend and that it will have more promotions to come.
"We just started a new promotion recently, but that could change for tax-free weekend," he said. "We had 30 percent off [recently], but now we're doing a lot of new markdowns. We won't know all of our exact promotions until the day of."
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
You must register with a valid email to post comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here:
Become a Registered User
- Return to: News Update «
- Home «
- Top of Page ^
