The back-to-school sales tax holiday in Missouri starts at 12:01 a.m. Friday, allowing people shopping in Joplin to save the 8.725% they would normally pay in taxes on the purchase of selected items related to sending a child back to school.
The holiday lasts through midnight Sunday.
According to the Missouri Department of Revenue, certain purchases such as school supplies, computers, clothing and other qualifying items as defined by statute are exempt from all state and local sales tax.
Items to be exempt from local and states sales taxes Friday through Sunday:
• Clothing — any article having a taxable value of $100 or less.
• School supplies — not to exceed $50 per purchase.
• Computer software — taxable value of $350 or less.
• Personal computers — not to exceed $1,500.
• Computer peripheral devices — not to exceed $1,500.
• Graphing calculators — not to exceed $150.
In addition to state sales tax, local sales tax will also be waived in all cities, counties and special tax districts. Anyone making these qualified purchases will receive the tax waiver.
Until 2023, cities and counties had the choice to opt out of the holiday and Joplin, Carthage, Carl Junction and Neosho were among about 150 cities statewide that continued to collect local sales taxes. But a change in state law in 2021 that took effect in 2023 mandates no city or county may collect sales taxes on back-to-school purchases during the weekend observance.
Carthage City Administrator Traci Cox said it’s hard to say if the city saw any impact on its sales tax revenue after it could no longer opt out of the holiday. Carthage’s sales tax rate is 9.35%. The back-to-school sales tax holiday typically falls on the same weekend as Marian Days, a religious festival that can bring between 50,000 and 100,000 people to Carthage, many go whom shop at the businesses in the south part of Carthage.
“In 2023, we had the highest collections for any August since we started keeping records,” Cox said. “We receive August collections in October, and in October 2023, the city’s sales tax collections were $266,000. In October 2022, those collections were $255,000, and in October 2024, the collections were $247,000, but in 2024, collections in every month were lower than the year before, so it’s just hard to tell.”
The Missouri Municipal League, which represents city governments, said the law prohibiting cities and counties from opting out of the back-to-school sales tax holiday also allowed local taxing entities to collect use taxes on online or out-of-state sales.