This year, the 2025 Sales Tax Holiday is set to take place from Friday, July 11, 2025, to Sunday, July 13, 2025.
During the holiday, sales tax is not due on clothing, footwear, or school supplies for individual items that are less than $100.
The Mississippi Department of Revenue defines clothing, footwear, and school supplies for the holiday as the following:
• “Clothing” is any article of apparel designed to be worn on the human body including pants, shirts and blouses, dresses, coats, jackets, belts, hats, undergarments, and multiple piece garments sold as a set.
• “Footwear” is any article of apparel for human feet not including skis, swim fins, roller blades, skates, cleats, and any similar items.
• “School Supplies” means items that are commonly used by a student in a course of study.
It is important to know what is eligible for tax exemption and what isn’t eligible. The sale only applies to eligible items that are less than $100 per article.
To assist in clearing any confusion for some common things that may take place during the sale, the following are some guidelines to use.
If there is a sale for buy one, get one free or for a reduced price, the total price cannot be averaged to qualify both items for the holiday. The actual price for each item determines whether it fits in the $100 per item limit. For example, if there is a buy one, get one half off sale and one pair of pants is $120 and the second is half off, then sales tax will be included on the pair that is $120, but the half of pair for $60 would be tax exempt. If both pants are half off, then they would both qualify.
During the holiday, any sales of eligible items ordered over the phone, by mail, or over the internet should not be taxed if they are purchased in the holiday time period and are less than the $100 per article threshold.
In case any returns or exchanges have to take place after the holiday ends, there are rules in place for how the tax exemption would work. According to the Mississippi Department of Revenue, they are as follows:
• If an eligible item was purchased during the Sales Tax Holiday and returned after the holiday for credit on the purchase of a different item, sales tax is applied to the sale of the newly purchased item. For example, a customer purchases a $35 shirt during the Sales Tax Holiday. After the holiday, the customer returns the shirt, receives a credit for the shirt, and then buys a $35 jacket. Sales tax is due on the $35 price of the jacket since the jacket was not purchased during the holiday.
• If an eligible item was purchased during the Sales Tax Holiday and later exchanged for the same item but it’s a different size, different color, etc., then sales tax is not to be charged even if the exchange is made after the holiday. For example, a customer purchases a $53 shirt during the Sales Tax Holiday and returns the shirt in exchange for another size of the same style shirt after the holiday; sales tax is not due on the exchanged shirt.
Exactly what is NOT eligible for tax exemption? Some of the things that are not eligible to be tax free are any accessories, diapers, cleats, different sports uniform items, protective equipment, etc.
Any school supplies that would be frequently used in the classroom would be tax free.
