With no state, county or city sales taxes on qualified back-to-school items this Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout Madison County, shoppers will receive significant savings.

BY ANNA DURRETT / REPORTER

The magic minute this year is 12:01 a.m. Friday, August 3, which is when the sales tax back-to-school holiday begins on certain school supplies, clothing, computers, computer-related goods and books.

The select items will be tax-free until midnight Sunday.

With no state, county or city sales taxes on qualified back-to-school items this Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout Madison County, shoppers will receive significant savings.

Madison Mayor Paul Finley is looking forward to the tax-free weekend. “Shopping for school supplies with our three boys is always such fun,” said Finley. “Knowing those supplies will be tax-free makes it that much better.”

Cameron Grounds, revenue officer of the Revenue Department of the City of Madison, said Madison will miss out on collecting between $7,000 and $9,000 of sales tax revenue during the holiday.

“The City of Madison has supported this tax-free weekend for many years,” said Finley.

This is Madison’s and Alabama’s seventh year having a sales tax holiday. Read the City of Madison’s 2012 sales tax holiday ordinance at madisonal.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/4956.

Articles of clothing costing $100 or less each will be tax-exempt and include basic garments like pants and shoes, as well as more specialized items such as diapers and robes.

Computers, computer software and school computer supplies of a single purchase price of $750 and under will not be taxed. Tax-exempt items include laptops, desktops, software, storage devices, printers, printer paper, printer ink and more.

School supplies, school art supplies and school instructional material of $50 and under per item will be tax-exempt. Over 30 items in this category will be tax-exempt, including book bags, lunch boxes, folders, and required textbooks on an official school book list costing under $50 and over $30.

All books costing $30 or under each will be tax-exempt. Other reading items such as magazines and newspapers will still be taxed.

For more information about what items will be tax-exempt, visit alabamaretail.org. For the list of qualified items for the 2012 sales tax holiday by the Alabama Department of Revenue, visit ador.state.al.us/salestax/STHolidayQuickRefSheet12.pdf.