RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s Back-to-School/Hurricane Preparedness three-day sales tax holiday kicks off Friday, Oct. 20 at 12:01 a.m. and continues through Sunday, Oct. 22 at 11:59 p.m.
During the tax-free weekend, shoppers can buy back-to-school items and stock up on hurricane season preparedness items without paying state and sales tax.
Lawmakers forgot to renew the popular back-to-school sales tax holiday, which typically takes place in August, so that is why it is being held in October this year. After a six-month stalemate, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bipartisan state budget in September that included $1 billion in tax relief, boosting spending on public education and mental health by hundreds of millions of dollars — and reinstating the sales tax holiday.
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As a reminder, tax exempt items include:
School supplies, clothing, and footwear
- Qualified school supplies – $20 or less per item
- Qualified clothing and footwear – $100 or less per item
Hurricane and emergency preparedness products
- Portable generators – $1,000 or less per item
- Gas-powered chainsaws – $350 or less per item
- Chainsaw accessories – $60 or less per item
- Other specified hurricane preparedness items – $60 or less per item
Energy Star™ and WaterSense™ products
- Qualifying Energy Star™ or WaterSense™ products purchased for noncommercial home or personal use – $2,500 or less per item
Online purchases of qualifying products are exempt from the sales tax as long as orders are placed and paid for during the August 5-7 exemption period and the sellers have the items available for immediate shipment, according to the Virginia Department of Taxation.
Click here for detailed lists of qualifying items and additional information.
