I tend to forget that not everyone has the depth of knowledge I’ve accumulated about Alabama’s sales tax holiday (occupational hazard).

So, I’m going to attempt to make it easy for the uninitiated.

The best place to begin is to know what items qualify for the sales tax break BEFORE you begin shopping.

The easy answer is:

• clothing priced at $100 or less;
• school supplies valued at $50 or less;
• books that cost $30 or less;
• textbooks with a price tag of $50 or less; and
• computers with a selling price of $750 or less, plus certain computer equipmentand software. 

All of the above are free of the state’s 4 percent sales tax everywhere in the state. (You may not have to pay city or county sales tax as well, depending on where you shop. More on that later.)

And the truth is there are nuances to each of those broad categories. If you want the full list of what is and isn’t taxed on the tax holiday weekend (Friday, Aug. 7, through Sunday, Aug. 9) click on the red sale tag here and print out the Sales Tax Holiday Quick Reference Sheet of Exempt Items. Here are the basics for those broad categories:

CLOTHING
First and foremost, any article of clothing priced at $100 or below will be free of the state sales tax.

So, you could go into any Alabama department store this weekend and buy your entire year’s supply of shirts sales tax free, as long as each shirt doesn’t cost more than $100. The total receipt amount doesn’t matter. All that counts is that no single clothing item exceeds $100.

“Clothes” also includes sandals, shoes and sneakers.

Sorry all you sports enthusiasts, golf or football cleats, rollerblades, ski boots and any other “shoe” considered sporting equipment that the general populace wouldn’t wear will be taxed. Ballet and tap shoes fall into the taxed “sports and recreation equipment” category as well. So even if your child is a dance student in an arts magnet school, you’ll still have to pay the sales tax on their dance shoes.

Not going back to school? Don’t worry, your clothes qualify too. Anything from baby diapers to a mother-of-the-bride dress qualifies as long as the individual item cost is $100 or less.

Most accessories — jewelry, handbags, hair bows, umbrellas and briefcases — will be taxed. Don’t fret, stores are sure to have great sales on those items as well, plus some accessories are included in the tax holiday. Tax-free accessories include scarves, hats, socks, underwear and belts.

Discouraged because that dress you’ve been eyeing at your favorite dress shop costs $115? Look in the newspaper, on the Web, check your e-mail and use any rewards coupons, cards or discounts you have. Stores can offer coupons or discounts in order to reduce prices to make items eligible for the sales tax holiday. Go in with a $15 off coupon and that dress will be tax free. (One twist: manufacturer coupons that involve payment to the retailer from a third-party won’t apply to making an item tax free in Alabama. You’ll still get the amount off or rebated, the manufacturer coupon just can’t be used to reduce a price so it meets the Alabama sales tax holiday qualifications.)

SCHOOL SUPPLIES
Not everything on a school’s supply list and not everything a teacher needs in a classroom will be tax free.

As long as each individual item has a value of $50 or less, these specific items, and these items only, qualify for the tax exemption: Binders, book bags, calculators, cellophane tape, blackboard chalk, compasses, composition books, crayons, erasers, folders, glue/paste/paste sticks, highlighters, index cards, index card boxes, legal pads, lunch boxes, markers, notebooks, paper, pencil/school supply boxes, pencil sharpeners, pencils, pens, protractors, rulers, scissors and writing tablets. If you have the school supply list for your child’s school, compare it in advance to the list above.

School art supplies (clay and glazes; acrylic, tempora and oil paints; paintbrushes for artwork, not house painting; sketch and drawing pads and watercolors) also are tax free.

Again, some items on the tax-free supply list are universal needs. Everyone needs paper, pens and tape, for example. The only limitation on who can buy the tax-free supplies is that it has to be private individuals; businesses as well as anyone buying the supplies for resale will have to pay taxes on any of the school supplies on this list.

You’ll notice that paper towels, tissues, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray and other items that often end up on a particular school’s or grade’s supply list will be taxed.

Also some items that teachers use in their classrooms, like bulletin board borders and card stock, are taxed. However, reference maps and globes are tax free.

BOOKS
If you can find a textbook that costs $50 or less, it is tax free for the three-day tax holiday. Otherwise, all books valued at $30 or less, no matter the subject, are tax free. To qualify, a book must be bound and have an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, a 10- (books published prior to 2007) or 13-digit number, usually above the bar code.

Magazines, newspapers, periodicals won’t qualify as a book.

COMPUTERS/COMPUTER EQUIPMENT:
For the purposes of the sales tax holiday, computer is defined as “an electronic device that accepts information in digital or similar form and manipulates it for a result based on a sequence of instructions, also known as a central processing unit (CPU).”

Translation: A laptop, notebook or mini computer all qualify. Desktop or tower computer systems also qualify, but it has to be the whole system, including the CPU, display monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers sold together as a package. The individual components, such as the monitor or mouse alone, don’t qualify.

Unlike clothing, school supplies and books, which you can buy in unlimited quanities, only one tax-free computer can be sold on a single receipt. The law was written in such a way to discourage buying multiple computers at the same time. However, if you want more than one computer, you can go through the check out line and buy one tax free, then come back later and buy another tax free as long as the price tag is $750 or less.

While the components of a computer can’t be bought separately in order to make the $750 threshold, a printer does fall under the tax-free holiday, along with computer storage media, such as flash drives and blank CDs. Printer paper and printer ink, the true cost of computing, also qualify. I’m going to stock up on ink for sure.

Computer software also is tax free as long as it is not game or entertainment related. Microsoft Office Home and Student, Rosetta Stone, the JumpStart series, etc., qualify, but you’ll have to pay taxes on WarCraft and Madden NFL. The key is the software has to be educational or commonly used by a student to accomplish school assignments, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Personal digital assistants without telephone capability have tax-free status. So a handheld PDA is tax free, but a BlackBerry is taxed.

You can buy as much of the qualifying computer equipment and software as you want. Only the computer is limited to a single purchase.

SAVINGS VARY FROMCITY TOCITY AND COUNTY TO COUNTY
While the state’s four percent sales tax is dropped everywhere in the state for the covered items, 254 local governments also won’t be collecting sales taxes for the covered items during the sales tax holiday. The sales tax holiday law gives cities and the counties the option of participating or not.

So, in the city of Montgomery, which is in the county of Montgomery, shoppers will save 10 percent on their purchases, because Montgomery city and county both voted to join the state tax holiday, and 10 percent is the total of city, county and state sales taxes in Montgomery. That’s the best situation for shoppers, when all three governmental entities drop the sales tax.

If you shop in Birmingham, for instance, you’ll save 8 percent, instead of 10 percent, because you will have to pay 2 cents in sales tax for every dollar spent. While the city of Birmingham voted to participate in the holiday, Jefferson County decided to continue to collect its 2 percent sales tax. To find out if your city and county governments have joined in the state sales tax holiday, click on the red sale tag above and go to 2009 Participating Cities & Counties.

BEAT THE CROWDS
The shopping this weekend won’t be as crowded as Black Friday (after-Thanksgiving sales), but it may come in a close second as far as shopping traffic goes.

Because the sales tax holiday officially begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday and ends at midnight Sunday, some stores will be opening early and staying open late. To avoid crowds, go early or late. Just check with your favorites stores to see when they plan to open and when they plan to close.

Getting there when the store opens or on the first day of the sales tax holiday also might be helpful as most retailers have anticipated slower sales than last year due to the recession. (According to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Back to School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, the average family with school-aged children in the South is expected to spend $505.01 on back-to-school items, which is $106 less than what they expected to spend last year.) Lower inventories in anticipation of those lower expectations may mean some items could sell out early.

CHECK BACK WITH BAMA RETAIL BUZZ
Hopefully, some of this information has been helpful to you. Check back here Friday. I’ll try to post updates throughout the day to let you know how the shopping is going.

Nancy King Dennis is the director of public relations for the Alabama Retail Association.