Arkansas families preparing for the upcoming school year will once again benefit from the state’s annual sales tax holiday, scheduled as always for the first weekend in August. State lawmakers set the event in early August specifically to ease the financial burden on families with children headed back to school.
This year’s tax‑free weekend begins at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, August 1, and runs through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 2. For the full 48 hours, both state and local sales taxes will be waived on a wide range of qualifying clothing, school supplies, and electronics.
The rules for eligible items remain familiar. Clothing and footwear priced under $100 per item qualify for the exemption. This category includes everyday items such as shirts, pants, dresses, and shoes, but also extends to baby blankets, raincoats, uniforms, hats, aprons, neckties, scarves, and steel‑toed boots. Diapers, including disposable diapers, are also tax‑exempt.
Accessories costing less than $50 per item are included as well. The list is lengthy, covering purses, handbags, sunglasses, wallets, watches, jewelry, hair accessories, and wigs. Additionally, more than 65 types of cosmetics, such as mascara, various hair products, fingernail polish and remover, bath salts, artificial eyelashes, perfume, and stretch‑mark cream, are exempt from sales tax during the holiday.
School supplies of all kinds qualify with no price limit. Families can purchase pens, pencils, paper, binders, crayons, markers, and art supplies without paying sales tax. Instructional materials used in the classroom, such as textbooks and reference books, are also eligible.
Electronics commonly used by students can be purchased tax‑free regardless of cost. That includes laptops, desktops, tablets, printers, keyboards, calculators, cell phones, e‑readers, and computer monitors. However, entertainment devices, including video game systems, stereos, and televisions, are not included in the exemption.
The tax break applies to each individual article rather than to the total amount spent. For example, if a shopper buys three shirts at $25 each and a pair of pants for $50, no sales tax will be charged on those items even though the total exceeds $100. Because each individual item falls below the allowable threshold, all qualify. On the other hand, a single pair of shoes priced at $120 would be fully taxable.
There is also no limit to the number of eligible items shoppers can buy, so long as each article meets its respective price restriction. Clothing must be under $100 per item, accessories under $50 per item, while electronics and school supplies have no price cap at all.
All retailers in Arkansas are required to participate in the tax‑free weekend. The exemption applies to in‑person purchases as well as qualifying online orders. Retailers are prohibited from splitting normally bundled items, such as men’s suits or pairs of shoes, into separate pieces in an effort to bring individual prices under the exemption threshold.
For complete definitions of eligible products and additional guidance, shoppers can consult the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration website or download the state’s Sales Tax Holiday Instructions.
