Clanton to join state, offer sales tax break
Published 7:33 pm Thursday, July 15, 2010
Clanton will participate in the state’s fifth annual sales tax holiday, giving residents and out-of-towners alike an incentive to do their back-to-school shopping in the city.
Clanton has participated every year of the holiday, which will last from 12:01 a.m. Aug. 6 until midnight Aug. 8 this time around.
“We feel like it helps the consumer and helps the business and helps us, too, in the long run because we might be able to get some shoppers we wouldn’t usually get,” Clanton Mayor Billy Joe Driver said. “When they get in there, they might buy something they weren’t planning on buying.”
The holiday offers shoppers to purchase school supplies, computers and clothing without paying state sales tax. Counties and municipalities can then decide to participate, also, saving shoppers even more money.
Neither Chilton County nor any county municipalities other than Clanton will participate. The 1-cent county sales tax is reserved for education, and other city leaders have said in the past they didn’t waive sales tax during the holiday because of a lack of stores that sell the type of merchandise the holiday covers.
Sales tax is waived on most any piece of human wearing apparel that costs under $100, computers or computer packages that cost less than $75, and any school supplies that cost less than $50 per item.