Tax-free weekend approaches

WKRN Channel 2 News NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The tax-free holiday in Tennessee is nearly upon us. Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Friday through Sunday night, Tennesseans can shop tax-free for clothing, school supplies and computers. Clothing less than $100 per item, school supplies less than $100 per item and computers less than $1,500 are tax-free. The basics like shirts, dresses and pants are included, as well as coats, gloves and mittens, hats, hosiery, neckties, scarves, belts, shoes and sneakers. Items like binders, notebooks, paper, rulers, pens, pencils and scissors are included, in addition to clay and glazes, oil paints and watercolors and sketch and drawing pads. With no tax, shoppers in Davidson County will see savings of nearly 10%. "When you think it's almost 10% of what you're paying, you know, it does add up," shopper Katrina Brown told News 2. "Obviously the economy needs some help and if it's motivation for people to go out and shop, it helps retailers and if people have to get the items anyway then they can save some money," added shopper Rob Stigall. In the past, shoppers have saved anywhere from $8 million to $15 million. The savings, however, come at a cost to the state. For the month of June, sales tax collections were $68 million less than estimated and for 16 of the last 18 months, sales tax collections have experienced negative growth. In addition, not only does the state not collect taxes during the shopping period, the state is also responsible for repaying the municipalities the taxes they don't charge. The state cancelled a planned sales tax holiday in April because it simply couldn't afford it. Sophie Moery with the Tennessee Department of Revenue told News 2, "The state is obviously suffering the effects of the national economic downturn and we have had negative growth in sales tax for at least the past year." The sales tax holiday began in 2006 in Tennessee. The August tax-free event is always the first Friday of every month. This weekend's sales tax holiday ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.Visit TNTaxHoliday.com for complete details and a complete list of tax-free items.