Missouri's back-to-school tax holiday: five price caps, and the city that can still charge tax
Missouri's back-to-school holiday starts on the first Friday in August and ends at midnight on the following Sunday, and the Department of Revenue ties it to Section 144.049 of the state statutes. Since Jan. 1, 2023 it exempts state and local tax on the items it covers, but it does not cover them all at the same price. A piece of clothing must be 100 dollars or less, school supplies are capped at 50 dollars per purchase, software at 350, a graphing calculator at 150, and a computer or peripheral at 1,500. The Department's own FAQ also describes a case that matters to anyone selling across the state: a city can choose not to take part, and a shopper in that city still pays the city's tax on a holiday purchase while the state tax and a participating county's tax are waived. For a Shopify store, the practical questions are which of your products fall under which cap, whether shipping pushes a price over its limit, and what to say about a shopper whose address is in a city that opted out. This page works through those from the Department's pages, adds Missouri's April appliance holiday and its river and port freight figures, and ends with a multi-pack offer that keeps every item under its own cap. This is not tax advice; confirm with the Missouri Department of Revenue.
Back-to-school sales tax holiday
The holiday runs from 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August to midnight on the following Sunday, which by the rule is Friday, August 6 through Sunday, August 8 in 2027, though the Department has not posted 2027 dates. It exempts clothing at 100 dollars or less per article, school supplies up to 50 dollars per purchase, software at 350 or less, graphing calculators up to 150, and personal computers or peripherals up to 1,500. Shipping and handling charges that are mandatory count toward those limits.
- Clothing, 100 dollars or less per article
- School supplies, up to 50 dollars per purchase
- Computer software, 350 dollars or less
- Graphing calculators, up to 150 dollars
- Computers and peripherals, up to 1,500 dollars
Watch out: A city or county can choose not to take part, and the Department's FAQ shows a city's tax still applying while the state and a participating county's tax do not. We could not find a current published list of the places that opted out, so check the Department for the shopper's address before you advertise a holiday as tax free everywhere in Missouri. The statute's text says the exemption covers state and local sales tax and does not itself mention an opt-out, so treat the FAQ's example as the Department's current position and ask it directly. This is not tax advice; confirm with the Missouri Department of Revenue.
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday
A multi-pack ladder that keeps every item under its cap
- In the spring, before the holiday
Sort your catalog against the five caps. Clothing is tested per article at 100 dollars, school supplies per purchase at 50, so list which products fall under which cap and which fall outside the definitions, such as watches, handbags and headphones.
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, information for consumers
- When you design the offer
The statute says a seller's discount that reduces the sales price is counted at the discounted price when testing a cap, but neither it nor the Department's pages say how a free item in a buy-one-get-one is treated, so build a volume discount in which each item keeps its own visible price under the cap, for example a 2-pack and a 3-pack of 40 dollar shirts, rather than a buy-one-get-one structure.
Source: Missouri Revisor of Statutes: Section 144.049 RSMo (text effective Jan. 1, 2023)
- Before you price shipping
Add any mandatory shipping or handling charge to the item's price before you compare it with a cap, because the Department includes those charges in the thresholds. A 98 dollar shirt with a 4 dollar mandatory charge is a 102 dollar item.
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs
- The week before the holiday
Check the Department's announcement for the 2027 dates, which by the rule fall on August 6 to 8, and decide what your cart says to a shopper whose city may not take part. A line such as 'State and participating local taxes waived' is safer than 'tax free'.
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs
- April, on the dates the Department lists
If you sell new ENERGY STAR certified appliances, the Department lists the Show Me Green holiday as April 19 to 25 with a 1,500 dollar cap per appliance. Confirm the year's dates with the Department, schedule the offer to them and use no price that crosses the cap.
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue: Show Me Green Sales Tax Holiday
Build it with the Volume discount template.
Questions merchants ask
- When is the Missouri back-to-school sales tax holiday in 2027?
- The statute starts it on the first Friday in August and ends it at midnight on the following Sunday, which makes it Friday, August 6 through Sunday, August 8, 2027. The Department of Revenue lists only the 2026 dates today, so confirm the 2027 dates with the Department before you schedule an offer.
- Does the holiday apply at every Missouri address?
- Not necessarily. The Department's FAQ describes a city that chooses not to take part, where the shopper is still charged that city's tax while state tax and a participating county's tax are waived. We could not find a current published list of the cities and counties that opted out, so check with the Department for the address in question.
- Does a 98 dollar jacket qualify if shipping is 5 dollars?
- The Department says the thresholds include mandatory shipping and handling charges as part of the total purchase price, so the jacket would be counted at 103 dollars and would exceed the 100 dollar clothing cap. Ask the Department how an optional shipping choice is treated.
- Are backpacks and laptops covered?
- Backpacks and book bags are listed as school supplies, but supplies are capped at 50 dollars per purchase, so a 65 dollar backpack does not qualify, as the Department's own example shows. Laptops and desktops qualify as personal computers up to 1,500 dollars.
- Do I have to collect Missouri tax on sales from another state?
- The Department says a remote seller must collect once gross receipts from taxable sales into Missouri exceed 100,000 dollars, checked at the end of each quarter over the preceding 12 months. This is not tax advice; confirm with the Missouri Department of Revenue.
Related reading
The year at a glance
Shipping into the state
Missouri has 68,742 square miles of land, and its freight story is the river: MoDOT counts 1,050 miles of navigable waterway on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and reports 5.2 million tons through public ports in fiscal year 2025. For a Shopify store the practical point is the order, not the barge. A Missouri holiday sale counts when the purchase and the payment both happen inside the window, even if the parcel ships afterward, and mandatory shipping and handling charges count toward a price cap, so a clothing item at 98 dollars with a 4 dollar shipping charge sits over the 100 dollar line.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau: State Area Measurements (2010)
Source: Missouri Department of Transportation: FY 2027 Programs Book (Waterways)
Source: Missouri Department of Transportation: FY 2027 Programs Book (Waterways)
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs
Facts and sources
The Department of Revenue says that under Section 144.049 the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday begins on the first Friday in August and continues through the following Sunday, and it lists the 2026 holiday as beginning Friday, August 7 at 12:01 a.m. and ending Sunday, August 9 at midnight; it shows no 2027 dates yet.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday (accessed October 10, 2026)
Counting from the first-Friday rule, the first Friday of August 2027 is August 6, so the holiday would run from Friday, August 6 through Sunday, August 8, 2027, a window we computed because the Department has not yet posted 2027 dates.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Department's consumer page limits the exemption to clothing with a taxable value of 100 dollars or less, school supplies not exceeding 50 dollars per purchase, computer software of 350 dollars or less, personal computers and computer peripheral devices not exceeding 1,500 dollars, and graphing calculators not exceeding 150 dollars.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, information for consumers (accessed October 10, 2026)
Missouri defines clothing as any article of wearing apparel intended to be worn on or about the human body, says items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify, and excludes watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands and belt buckles.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, information for consumers (accessed October 10, 2026)
School supplies are any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, calculators, chalk, maps and globes, and the statute excludes watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, telephones, copiers and other office equipment, furniture and fixtures.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, information for consumers (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Department says that effective Jan. 1, 2023 the holiday exempts all state and local sales or use taxes on qualifying items during the exemption period, and that before 2023 only state sales and use taxes were exempt.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, information for vendors (accessed October 10, 2026)
The FAQ's worked example has a city with a 2 percent city sales tax that does not take part while its county, with a 0.5 percent tax, does: a 3,000 dollar computer bought in the city is exempt from the 4.225 percent state tax and the county tax but carries 60 dollars of city tax, and vendors in a non-participating jurisdiction report those holiday sales on a separate line with the code 8001.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs (accessed October 10, 2026)
For online orders the FAQ says the exemption applies if the purchase of the qualifying item occurs during the holiday and the transaction is completed during it, and delivery can come after the holiday if the purchaser pays in full during the holiday; the thresholds include mandatory shipping and handling charges as part of the total purchase price.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs (accessed October 10, 2026)
Only purchases for personal use qualify, a purchase exchanged later for an eligible item of equal or less value owes no tax, and an item returned after the holiday for a credit toward a different item does not make that later purchase exempt, even if the item is eligible.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs (accessed October 10, 2026)
Section 144.049 says that for a seller's discount that reduces the sales price of a product, the discounted sales price decides whether the price falls under the cap, that a coupon counts as a discount only if the seller is not reimbursed for it by a third party, and that items normally sold as a single unit must keep being sold that way and may not be priced separately.
Missouri Revisor of Statutes: Section 144.049 RSMo (text effective Jan. 1, 2023) (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Department says the holiday may not apply to a retailer when less than 2 percent of the merchandise it offers qualifies, but the retailer must provide a refund of the sales tax paid if the customer requests one.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, information for vendors (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Department says that under Section 144.526.1 the Show Me Green Sales Tax Holiday begins April 19 and continues through April 25, with qualifying ENERGY STAR certified new appliances exempt, and the consumer page puts the cap at 1,500 dollars per appliance.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Show Me Green Sales Tax Holiday (accessed October 10, 2026)
A remote seller or marketplace facilitator must collect and remit Missouri vendor's use tax once its gross receipts from taxable sales shipped into the state exceed 100,000 dollars, tested at the end of each quarter over the preceding 12 months, with collection starting no later than three months after that quarter closes.
Missouri Department of Revenue: Remote Seller and Marketplace Facilitator FAQs (accessed October 10, 2026)
MoDOT says Missouri has 1,050 miles of navigable waterways on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, used to move raw materials, manufactured goods and agricultural and petroleum products.
Missouri Department of Transportation: FY 2027 Programs Book (Waterways) (accessed October 10, 2026)
In fiscal year 2025, total public port freight tonnage in Missouri was 5.2 million tons, which MoDOT equates to 200,070 trucks on the state's highways, moved through 19 active port authorities and one three-state port commission.
Missouri Department of Transportation: FY 2027 Programs Book (Waterways) (accessed October 10, 2026)
Missouri has 68,742 square miles of land area.
U.S. Census Bureau: State Area Measurements (2010) (accessed October 10, 2026)
Cities in Missouri
- Kansas CityKansas City sits on two states and four Missouri counties. Rates by county, a rail hub that spans the line and a shipping-tier plan priced before tax.
Not tax advice. Confirm current rules with the state revenue department before you rely on a date or an exemption.