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CEDAR PARK, TEXAS – JUNE 22: School supplies are displayed on shelves at a Target store on June 22, 2026 in Cedar Park, Texas. Retail giants including Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Office Depot have launched their back-to-school sales earlier than usu <\/p>\n
NEW YORK CITY<\/strong> – For families in the New York City area, back-to-school shopping comes with a unique set of tax rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n New York City residents enjoy one of the best year-round tax perks in the Northeast, with everyday clothing and footwear priced under $110 per item completely exempt from both the 4% New York State tax and the 4.5% NYC local tax.<\/p>\n However, the exemption is a hard cutoff. A pair of $109 sneakers will get you $0 in sales tax, but if those sneakers cost $110, the entire purchase is hit with the full 8.875% combined tax rate. That same tax also applies to every notebook, backpack and laptop on your list.<\/p>\n To avoid the $110 limit on expensive apparel, and to take advantage of Connecticut’s zero-tax rule on everyday school supplies, some NYC parents are taking their shopping lists across state lines to maximize their budgets.<\/p>\n Shopping strategy <\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n To maximize your back-to-school budget and minimize toll and gas expenses, it may be best to split your shopping list based on the price tags.<\/p>\n Clothing <\/p>\n Since New York City exempts clothing and footwear under $110 year-round, buy the basics locally. Remember that the exemption applies per item, not per receipt, which means you can buy ten $50 shirts at once and the entire $500 purchase remains tax-free.<\/p>\n If you are shopping for apparel that pushes past the $110 mark, mark your calendar for August 16\u201322 to attend Connecticut’s annual Sales Tax Free Week. Any qualifying clothing or footwear item priced under $300 is completely tax-free.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you plan to exceed Connecticut’s $300 limit, or if you miss the August 16\u201322 window, head to New Jersey, where everyday clothing and footwear are exempt from sales tax year-round, regardless of the price.<\/p>\n CEDAR PARK, TEXAS – JUNE 22: School supplies are displayed on shelves at a Target store on June 22, 2026 in Cedar Park, Texas. Retail giants including Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Office Depot have launched their back-to-school sales earlier than usu <\/p>\n School supplies <\/p>\n Clothing is only half the back-to-school battle. When it comes time to buy binders, backpacks, and laptops, the rules change entirely.<\/p>\n Starting July 1, Connecticut introduced a new, year-round sales tax exemption for non-electronic school supplies. The exemption means items like backpacks, lunch boxes, notebooks, and binders are now completely tax-free in Connecticut any day of the year.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the tri-state area has become a tax desert for electronics. New York does not exempt electronics, New Jersey permanently repealed its back-to-school tax holiday, and Connecticut\u2019s exemptions explicitly exclude computers and calculators.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you need to buy a laptop, your best local option is to cross the river and buy it in New Jersey (6.625%) or Connecticut (6.35%) to shave a little off NYC\u2019s steep 8.875% combined rate. However, if you are buying multiple electronic devices, it may be worth making the longer drive down to Delaware, where there is a 0% sales tax on everything.<\/p>\n School supplies surge <\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n Families are expected to spend nearly $175 on school supplies this year, according to data from Groundwork Collaborative.<\/p>\n The price of a typical list has increased 7.7% over the past year, with some essential supplies seeing the largest price hikes: lunch boxes (26.8%), notebooks (23%), index cards (22.2%), notebook paper (20%), and tissues (20%).<\/p>\n The Source:<\/b> Information from this article sourced from Groundwork Collaborative, NY Department of Taxation and Finance, CT Department of Revenue Services and NJ Division of Taxation.<\/p>\n New York City<\/a>Education<\/a>New Jersey<\/a>Connecticut<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article CEDAR PARK, TEXAS – JUNE 22: School supplies are displayed on shelves at a Target store on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":982559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,51254,407,405,403,50,5226,5225,15747,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-982558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-ct","tag-education","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-nj","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117043590060858004","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785943356_675_gettyimages-2282804937.jpg\")
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