Texas Sales Tax Holiday 2025: What to Know Before You Shopped

school supplies spilling out of a backpack on a blue background

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Updated: The 2025 back-to-school sales tax holiday in Texas has ended.

Back-to-school shopping is no joke, and this year it might be more expensive than ever.

A recent Savings.com report has shown that parents will spend a record-high of $628 per child this summer on school essentials.

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But there was some welcome relief for Texas residents: The state’s 26th annual sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping.

This tax-free weekend exempted certain articles of clothing, electronics, and school supplies from state sales tax.

Find out how Texas’s 2025 tax holiday might've helped you save on back-to-school items.

Did Texas have a tax-free weekend?

The back-to-school holiday is one of the three sales tax holidays Texas offers. It began Friday, August 8, and ended at midnight on Sunday, August 10.

During that time, many school supplies and clothing were exempt from the state’s 6.25% sales tax rate.

List of tax-free items in the Texas tax holiday: What was included in the tax-free weekend

Like its fellow no-income tax state, Tennessee, Texas had a similar guideline for tax-exempt clothing. Clothes must've been $100 or less to qualify for the tax holiday. School supplies also needed to be $100 or less.

Many tax-free items fell under these two categories, but here were a few of our favorites:

Writing tablets and calculators
Lunch boxes and book bags (though there’s a special rule regarding book bags, more on that below)
Shirts, skirts, coats and dresses
Shorts, pants and jeans
Hats, sneakers and socks
Crayons, scissors, notebooks and paper
Workout clothes, diapers and underwear

While the Comptroller’s office estimated $133.2 million in savings for shoppers, many items were not included in the Texas back-to-school tax-free weekend.

Items that were not tax-exempt during the Texas back-to-school holiday 2025

Unlike the back-to-school sales tax holiday in Florida, Texas had much stricter guidelines on electronics. Items such as computers and printers were not included in the sale.

Below, you’ll find a list of many other items that remained taxable during the 2025 Texas tax-free weekend:

Textbooks and software
Jewelry, wallets and watches
Hair accessories (including clips, bows, barrettes and headbands)
Handbags, purses, briefcases, luggage and umbrellas
Items used to make or repair clothing, such as fabric, thread, yarn, patterns, etc.
Athletic gear (including cleated shoes, gloves, helmets and protective pads)
Non-prescription sunglasses

Note: For a complete list of included and excluded items, visit the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website.

Texas backpack sale and limits on school supply kits

Book bags were tax-exempt if they were not framed backpacks or athletic, duffle or gym bags.

Backpacks with wheels and messenger bags were eligible for the tax exemption, but even then, you could not purchase more than 10 qualifying book bags tax-free during the holiday.

Another key item of consideration was school kits. Teachers and homeschool parents could purchase school supply kits during the back-to-school sale. Whether these kits were taxable depended on the value of the items inside:

If the value of the tax-exempt items was more than the value of the taxable items, the kit was exempt.
Otherwise, the kit was taxable.

Could you buy online for the Texas tax-free weekend?

Online purchases might have qualified for the sales tax holiday, but delivery to a Texas address was required.

Online retailers such as Amazon honor state sales tax holidays. However, the retailer explains on its website that "tax may still be calculated on items if they do not qualify, including threshold limits, bundles, orders placed before the holiday starts, or specific items that are not included in the holiday.”

Kate is a CPA with experience in audit and technology. As a Tax Writer at Kiplinger, Kate believes that tax and finance news should meet people where they are today, across cultural, educational, and disciplinary backgrounds.