Texas Sales Tax-Free Weekend Returned For 2026
Back-to-school shopping in Texas kicked off with the annual sales tax holiday. Here's what was included.
Updated: The 2026 back-to-school sales tax holiday in Texas has ended.
Back-to-school shopping is no joke, and your 2026 shopping trip might have been a little expensive.
A recent Deloitte report has shown that parents will spend up to $557 per child this summer on school essentials.
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But there was some welcome relief for Texas residents: The state’s 28th annual sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping.
This tax-free weekend exempted certain articles of clothing and school supplies from state sales tax.
Find out how Texas’s 2026 tax holiday might have helped you save on back-to-school items.
Does Texas have a tax-free weekend?
The back-to-school holiday is one of the four sales tax holidays Texas offers. It began Friday, August 7, and ended at midnight on Sunday, August 9.
During this time, many school supplies and clothing were exempt from the state’s 6.25% sales tax rate.
What was included in the Texas tax-free weekend
Like its fellow no-income-tax state, Tennessee, Texas has a similar guideline for tax-exempt clothing. Clothes must have 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 are just 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
- Diapers and underwear
However, 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 2026
Unlike the back-to-school sales tax holiday in Florida, Texas has 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 2026 Texas tax-free weekend:
- Textbooks and software
- Jewelry, wallets and watches
- 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)
Note: For a complete list of included and excluded items, visit the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website.
Texas backpack rules and limits
Book bags sold for less than $100 were tax-exempt if they were not framed backpacks, 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.
How school supply kits were taxed
Another key item of consideration is 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 may 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."
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