The 2023 Ohio tax-free weekend starts at 12:00 AM on Friday, August 4 and runs until 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 6. That gives Ohio shoppers three full days to take advantage of tax savings.
Families can save at least $5.75 on every $100 of eligible purchases made during the sales tax holiday. Ohio has special rules for its back-to-school tax holiday. If you want to save as much money as possible, it’s best to know the rules beforehand.
Ohio tax-free weekend for 2023
Only items for personal (or instructional) use are tax-exempt during the sales tax holiday. So, anything purchased for a business is taxable, even if the item would otherwise be exempt during the tax-free weekend. Here are some other rules you should know before creating your shopping list.
- Sets that include both taxable and tax-exempt items do not qualify for the sales tax holiday.
- Clothing and footwear rentals are not tax-exempt.
- Items placed on layaway during the sales tax holiday are tax-exempt.
- Items picked up from layaway during the sales tax holiday are also tax-exempt.
What is included in Ohio’s tax-free weekend?
Ohio’s tax-free weekend includes clothing, footwear, school supplies, and instructional material. But there are some exceptions. For example, each item of clothing must be priced at $75 or less to qualify, and individual school supply and instructional items can’t exceed $20. Below are specific items that do not qualify for the tax holiday, regardless of price.
- Accessories (sunglasses, handbags, headbands, jewelry, etc.)
- Sports equipment (cleats, baseball gloves, shoulder pads, ballet shoes, etc.)
- Protective equipment (such as hard hats and respirator masks)
- Sewing materials (including fabric and patterns)
Ohio tax-free school supplies
Ohio only allows certain school supplies and instruction materials to be purchased tax-free. These are the items that qualify for the sales tax holiday.
- Binders, book bags, calculators, and cellophane tape
- Blackboard chalk, compasses, composition books, crayons, and erasers
- Folders, glue, paste, highlighters, index cards and index card boxes
- Legal pads, lunch boxes, markers and notebooks
- Paper (including tracing paper, construction paper, copy paper and graph paper)
- Poster boards, pencil boxes, pencil sharpeners and pencils
- Pens, protractors, rulers, scissors and writing tablets.
- Reference maps and globes
- Textbooks and workbooks
Ohio tax-free weekend for online shopping
Thankfully, online shopping qualifies for Ohio’s sales tax holiday. That means shoppers can save on gas costs, too. That’s especially helpful since Ohio has one of the highest gas taxes in the country.
For your online order to be tax-free, you must order and pay for eligible items during the sales tax holiday. According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, the retailer must also accept your order for “immediate shipment” during the three-day period.
This means that pre-orders for items shipped at a later date do not qualify. However, the date of delivery does not determine eligibility. So, you don’t need to worry if your package will take a few days to reach your house.
