It’s that time of year again where parents are getting their kids ready for back to school and sales tax holiday weekends are coming up all across the country, including here in Texas.
These weekends are very appealing to the parent consumer and are advertised to the public as a great way to save money, but do they really?
The answer is no! Sales tax holidays have no real effect on low income consumers in particular (which is the reason politicians claim sales tax holidays are the most helpful) and in some cases retailers actually raise the price of their inventory to compensate for the savings the consumer gets with the sales tax. These holidays are really just a political stunt with no long term tax benefits to the consumer.