Massachusetts Exempts These Items From Sales Tax-Free Weekend

The Christmas shopping season used to begin the day after Thanksgiving and end promptly at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. However, the commercialization of the holiday and the advent of internet shopping changed all that for good. The Christmas shopping season is whenever you want it to be.

Back-to-school shopping for school clothes and supplies was also a finite period, usually the last weeks of summer recess, which varies from state to state.

Outfitting the kiddos for a new school year gets the cash registers ringing at brick-and-mortar retail stores during an otherwise slow time of year for retail stores, as folks are at the beach and not the shopping centers.

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Someone came up with the idea of a sales tax holiday, where shoppers could make purchases without having to pay the state sales tax on certain items. I'm not certain where it originated or when, but more than two dozen states, including Massachusetts, offer some form of sales tax-free holiday.

According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, "The first Massachusetts sales tax holiday was held in 2004 as a one-day, one-time event to help boost business for retailers in an otherwise slow month while giving consumers a break."

The Massachusetts Sales Tax Holiday is now a two-day annual event on the second weekend in August. The state's 6.25 percent sales tax will be waived for many items on August 9 and 10, 2025.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue says, "Most retail items of up to $2,500, purchased in Massachusetts for personal use on these two days," are exempt from sales tax.

There are exceptions, however.

Purchases not exempt from the sales tax include meals, motor vehicles, motorboats, telecommunications services, gas, steam, electricity, tobacco products, marijuana or marijuana products, alcoholic beverages and any single item whose price is more than $2,500.

Eligible items purchased and paid for over the internet qualify for the tax exemption.