Ohio changes sales tax holiday for 2024

There’s been a tax-free weekend in Ohio since 2015, but the 2024 Ohio sales tax holiday will be bigger and better. At least for consumers.

Since its inception, this annual tax-free weekend has occurred in early August from a Friday through a Sunday. Every year, the sales tax exemption is applied to clothing priced $75 or less and to school supplies and instructional materials priced $20 or less.

Not so this year.

The 2024 Ohio sales holiday will be longer than usual, beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 30, and concluding on Thursday, August 8, at 11:59 p.m. Ecommerce sellers located in different time zones should base the start and stop of the sales tax holiday on their own time zones. A California retailer would need to charge an Ohio customer sales tax on a $400 chair purchased at 1:00 a.m. in Ohio on Tuesday, July 30, because it would be 11:00 p.m. on Monday, July 29, in California.

As well as being longer than usual, the sales tax holiday will cover more items than in prior years. Almost all sales of tangible personal property priced up to $500 are exempt from Ohio sales tax during the tax-free period this year — including business-to-business sales.

Most food purchased at a restaurant for consumption on premises (“for here” or “dine in”) qualifies for the 2024 Ohio sales tax holiday, as long as it’s under the $500 price cap. Since to-go food is already exempt, it doesn’t qualify for the tax-free period.

Several categories of taxable goods are not eligible for the 2024 sales tax holiday:

• Alcoholic beverages
• Marijuana products
• Motor vehicles
• Services normally subject to sales tax
• Tobacco and vapor products
• Watercraft or outboard motors that must be titled

If you currently hold an Ohio sales tax permit and sell clothing and assorted school supplies in the state, you should be familiar with the state’s usual back-to-school sales tax holiday. Your sales systems should be set up to not apply sales tax to certain products — though every year you probably need to adjust the dates and determine whether new product offerings qualify for the exemption.

Whatever you normally do, you’ll need to do more to prepare for the 2024 Ohio sales tax holiday. And you’ll need to do it quickly. Registered vendors are required to participate.

The sales tax holiday may mean more work for retailers, but businesses based in Ohio can benefit from it. They won’t pay sales tax on their own qualifying purchases and they won’t owe consumer use tax on eligible items. So, yay.

Read our 2024 sales tax holidays blog to find out which states are offering tax-free weekends and longer sales tax holidays this year. And if you’re tired of grappling with last-minute sales tax changes that make compliance more difficult, learn how automating sales tax calculation can help.