
Photo by Jon Anderson
Alexa Riojas, right, checks out customer Deonna Walton at Plato's Closet in the Riverchase Promenade shopping center in Hoover, Alabama, on Monday, May 15, 2023.
The Hoover City Council tonight agreed to waive sales and use taxes on July 21-23 as part of the state’s back-to-school sales tax holiday.
Between 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 21, and midnight Sunday, July 23, shoppers will not have to pay state sales and use taxes and some local sales and use taxes on select items.
The three-day sales and use tax holiday was first created by the Legislature in 2006 to give people a break from taxes as they shop for items needed for their children to return to school.
The state gives counties and municipalities the option of whether to waive their own sales and use taxes for the same period.
The Hoover City Council approved Hoover’s participation this year with a unanimous vote tonight. Jefferson and Shelby counties also are participating, according to the Alabama Department of Revenue’s website.
However, Jefferson County only waives half of its sales and use taxes. The 1 percent sales tax allocated for education in Jefferson County will still be collected.
Other nearby cities and towns already participating include Alabaster, Bessemer, Birmingham, Center Point, Chelsea, Columbiana, Fultondale, Helena, Homewood, Hueytown, Indian Springs Village, Tarrant, Trussville, Vestavia Hills, Vincent and West Jefferson.
Items exempt include clothing with a sales price of $100 or less per item (excluding certain accessories and protective and sports equipment); computer equipment and supplies with a sales price of $750 or less per item or computer package; and noncommercial purchases of school supplies, school art supplies or school instructional materials up to $50 per item.
Clothing items eligible for the waiver include: belts, boots, caps, coats, diapers, dresses, gloves, gym suits, hats, hosiery, jackets, jeans, neckties, pajamas, pants, raincoats, robes, sandals, scarves, school uniforms, shirts, shoes, shorts, socks, sneakers and underwear.
School supplies eligible for the waiver include binders, blackboard chalk, book bags, calculators, cellophane tape, compasses, composition books, crayons, erasers, folders, glue and paste, highlighters, index cards, index card boxes, legal pads, lunch boxes, markers, notebooks, paper, pencil boxes and other school supply boxes, pencil sharpeners, pencils, pens, protractors, rulers, scissors, writing tablets, clay and glazes, paints, art paint brushes, sketch and drawing pads, watercolors, reference maps and globes, required textbooks priced between $30 and $50 and books priced at $30 or less.
For a complete list of tax-exempt and taxable items, go to revenue.alabama.gov/sales-use/sales-tax-holidays.
In other business tonight, the Hoover City Council:
- Appointed Larry Ingram to the Hoover Board of Zoning Adjustment and reappointed Curtis Jackson, James Brush and Jack Marshall to the board.
- Declared property at 1828 Valgreen Lane as a public nuisance due to high grass and/or weeds.
- Approved an updated physical map showing zoning on properties in the city of Hoover.
- Declared May 14-20 as Police Week in the city of Hoover in recognition of the work Hoover police officers do in keeping the peace and safeguarding life and property declared and May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day in memory and in honor of those who have died or become disabled in the line of duty.
- Wished Miss Hoover 2023 Mary-Coker Green well as she prepares to participate in the Miss Alabama Pageant at Samford University on June 28-July 1.
- Congratulated Hoover resident David Bannister for being named a Kentucky Colonel by the governor of Kentucky for his outstanding service to the community in establishing the Neighborhood Bridges Hoover organization and making contributions to the Hoover YMCA and Hoover athletics. Neighborhood Bridges Hoover has helped provide for more than $530,000 worth of needs of more than 3,600 Hoover children with the help of 2,360 donors, counselors in Hoover schools and the Hoover Fire Department.