Sales Taxes To Take Holiday in Jefferson County, Not in Fenton

If you’re in the market for clothes, shoes, school supplies or computers, the first weekend in August is the time to buy.

That’s when Missouri is holding its annual Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, saving shoppers in some communities on state sales taxes state on certain items. It begins at midnight Aug. 5 and ends at midnight Aug. 7.

Not all of the state's cities and counties are participating in the sales tax holiday program.

Jefferson County is all in on the waiver of sales taxes during the Back to School Tax Holiday. Business in the county will not charge the usual 6.350 percent sales tax (6.850 percent in the High Ridge Fire District area).

It's a different story, and more complicated, in the Fenton area. Shoppers will not be charged state or St. Louis County sales taxes (totalling 6.925 percent), but a half-cent sales tax and a one-cent sales tax at the Gravois Bluffs and Fenton Crossing shopping areas will still be levied. Unincorporated areas in the Fenton ZIP code area will enjoy the sales tax holiday.

Fenton Mayor Dennis Hancock said the city participated in the Show-Me Green sales tax holiday in which sales taxes were waved on new appliances because he said there would be less impact than the Back-to-School program in the Gravois Bluffs and Fenton Crossing shopping areas.

"That's the revenue that goes to bonds for and the Fabick property," Hancock said. "We have an obligation to pay those bonds."

The Fabick property is 120 acres of land generally behind city hall that has been left as passive parkland.

For those areas participating in the Back-to-Schoo Sales Tax Holiday, the items eligible for the tax exemption include:

• Clothing–an article of clothing can’t exceed $100;
• School supplies–up to $50 per purchase;
• Personal computers and peripheral devices-$3,500 or less;
• Computer software-$350 or less.

Click here for a complete list of qualified items.

For a list of other cities not participating in the tax-free weekend, visit the Missouri Department of Revenue website.