This weekend would normally be North Carolina’s Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday. But that ended last year. The state Retail Merchants Association is asking business owners to track sales anyway.
The state legislature’s argument for doing away with the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday was it cost North Carolina $13 million dollars in lost sales tax revenue.
But supporters of the popular sales tax holiday say consumers saved $13 million dollars.
Andy Ellen is President of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association. He says Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida all have a sales tax holiday.
“The surrounding states all have a sales tax holiday this weekend but we hope that people again will stay and support their local retailers in North Carolina, said Ellen.
Ellen says shoppers can expect a little less advertising to drive consumer traffic and probably losses in food court sales and movie theater sales.
The retail merchants association is asking retailers to track their sales three to four weeks before and after the usual tax holiday, to compare it with last year. Ellen says the results could drum up enough support to bring it back.
That's what happened in Florida a few years ago when they dropped the sales tax holiday during back-to-school shopping season and brought it back the following year.
Last year, several tax credits were repealed in House Bill 998 during North Carolina's 2013 legislative session.
