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Ohio’s sales tax holiday expands to two weeks and starts on Friday

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Ohio’s sales tax holiday has expanded from ten days to two weeks this year. It starts at midnight on Friday and ending at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14.

Shoppers at a mall near Cincinnati in February 2020
Shoppers at a mall near Cincinnati in February 2020. [Eric Glenn | shutterstock.com]
The sales tax holiday, which started as a three-day “back to school” event, is now 14 days. As it was last year, there will be no state or local sales taxes on all tangible personal property under $500, whether bought in person or online. The state sales tax of 5.75% is covered by the state. Local governments can levy up to 2.25% beyond that, and that tax is reimbursed to those governments by the state.

“It applies to all items of tangible personal property, which is anything you can touch, taste, feel—something that is weighed and measured. And except for limited things, each item of tangible personal property up to $500 is exempt from the sales tax,” said Lora Miller with the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants. “If the individual item amount exceeds $500, then sales tax is due on the entire amount of the item.”

Not included in the sales tax exemption are watercraft and outboard motors, motor vehicles, alcohol, tobacco, vape products and anything containing marijuana.

The list includes restaurant bills, again except for alcohol. They were also included last year. But there was an issue.

“Word didn’t get out somehow to the restaurants, and people were getting charged sales tax,” Miller said, who said that tax was refunded to diners.

Last year’s sales tax holiday cost the state $124 million, but was estimated to cost $584 million, so the total came in $460 million under estimates.