School is just around the corner and so is the Lone Star State's tax-free weekend, so you better put both on your calendar.

What’s Tax-Free?

During the Sales Tax Holiday, Texas shoppers can enjoy exemptions on most clothing, footwear, and school supplies. Specifically, items like backpacks and school supplies sold for less than $100 are eligible for tax exemption. Whether shopping in-store, online, or by phone, you can take advantage of these savings as long as the purchase is completed during the holiday period.

This year you can shop the holiday sale from Friday, Aug. 9th and it goes through midnight Sunday, Aug. 11th, 2024.

Now, this is only valid for select school supplies, clothes and shoes, backpacks and more items under $100 can be bought without having to pay sales tax.

How to Shop Texas Tax-Free Weekend

You don't have to shop only in stores. All the qualifying items can also be purchased tax-free online or by telephone if the item is both delivered and paid for during Tax-Free Weekend or if ordered and paid for during the exemption period for immediate shipment, even if delivery is made after the exemption period ends.

Also, it is very important to remember that delivery, shipping, handling, and transportation charges are considered part of the total sales price and will determine if you can buy it tax-free. So your best bet is just to shop in stores

Texas Tax-Free Weekend Layaways

During the sales tax holiday, you can buy qualifying items tax-free when you:

• make the final payment on an item already on layaway(August 6th-8th); or
• choose an item and place it on layaway

Meaning you can put the school supplies on layaway now while you are shopping and pay them off over the holiday tax-free weekend.

Texas Tax-Free Weekend Items That Qualify

Athletic socks
Select backpacks
Coats and jackets
Select sports equipment
Cloth or deposable masks
Select shoes
School uniforms
Binders
Blackboard chalk
Book bags
Calculators
Cellophane tape
Compasses
Composition books
Crayons
Erasers
Folders
Glue, paste and paste sticks
Highlighters
Index cards
Index card boxes
Legal pads
Lunch boxes
Markers
Notebooks
Paper
Pencil boxes and other school supply boxes
Pencil sharpeners
Pencils
Pens
Protractors
Rulers
Scissors
Writing tablets

You can see the full list of what is and isn't eligible at the Texas Comptroller's Website here. Most Lubbock stores are already stocked and people show up for back-to-school shopping in-store.