New Mexico Sales Tax Holiday Guidance
- Jul 19, 2012 | Susan McLain

The New Mexico Sales Tax Holiday occurs the first weekend in August. This year’s holiday occurs August 3-5, 2012.The New Mexico Department of Taxation has updated their Sales Tax Holiday Bulletin to reflect changes.
Since New Mexico actually has a Gross Receipts Tax instead of a formal “sales tax,” this tax relief provides a “deduction…from gross receipts for retail sales of tangible personal property.” Since retailers can deduct gross receipts, “…they have no need to recover tax costs from some customers…customers can therefore buy these items during this period free of tax.”
The sales tax holiday applies to:
- Clothing or shoes sold for less than $100;
- Desktop, laptop, notebook or tablet computers sold for no more than $1,000;
- Related computer hardware up to $500;
- Handheld calculators up to $200 (increased from $100); and
- School supplies normally used in a standard classroom under $30 (increased from $15).
Examples of clothing include:
- Aerobic clothing
- Aprons
- Baby diapers
- Blouses
- Bowling shirts
- Jogging apparel
- Sandals
- Shawls
Computer equipment EXCLUDES:
- Pre-recorded CDs
- Computer scanners
- Software manuals
- E-readers
- Joy sticks
- Headsets
School supplies (under $30) include notebooks, binders, book bags (but not backpacks for hiking or similar activities) and other small school supply items used in the normal course of a school day. A few school items have a higher limit price per item.
Sales Tax Returns and Forms
Retailers are instructed to use the CRS-1 Form “…as usual to report and deduct receipts from the sale of qualifying items sold during the tax holiday.” Retailers must also file Form RPD-41299 along with their CRS-1.
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