This story is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. Link to FULL story: njspotlightnews.org/2023/08/itep-tax-holiday-school-supplies-taxation-and-economic-policy-federal-reserve-exempt-nonexempt-federal-reserve-bank-of-cleveland-state-said-state-treasurer-elizabeth-maher-muoio-treasury-department-di/

Later this month, consumers across New Jersey will be able to take advantage of a temporary, “back-to-school” sales-tax holiday as they buy items including notebooks, pencils and even certain computers and sports and recreation equipment.

Starting August 26 and lasting for 10 days through September 4, dozens of retail items will be legally exempt from the state’s 6.625 percent sales tax across New Jersey because of the tax holiday.

This is the second year in a row that New Jersey has offered such a tax break, which any individual can take advantage of while purchasing exempted items during the holiday, not just students and their parents.

Gov. Phil Murphy and majority Democrats who control the Legislature have touted the tax holiday as one of more than a dozen policies they’ve enacted in recent years in response to concerns about inflation, taxes and New Jersey’s generally high cost of living.