Second Amendment Sales Tax Holidays, September 2015

Deer hunting seasons opens soon in Louisiana and Mississippi, in some areas as early as mid-September. The states generously help hunters prepare for the hunt by providing Second Amendment Sales Tax Holidays, which also remind Louisianans and Mississippians that they have the right to bear arms.

This year, both the 2015 Louisiana Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday and the Mississippi Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday will take place the weekend of September 4-6, 2015.

Exempt

During the tax-free period, state and local sales and use taxes do not apply to numerous hunt-related items, including but not limited to the following:

• Archery items (arrows, bows, crossbows, quivers, shafts)
• Cases to carry archery equipment, guns
• Firearm, archery and other accessories
• Optical equipment such as rifle scopes and impact resistant glasses for shooting
• Pistols and rifles
• Safety equipment

Not exempt

• Animals, even those purchased exclusively for hunting purposes (think dogs)
• Purchases made by a business or for a business
• Toy guns

Differences

Please note that there are differences between the states; they don't exempt all of  the same items. For example:

• Louisiana exempts certain apparel (including camouflage clothing, hunting shoes and thermal underwear manufactured and marketed as being primarily for wear or use while hunting), while Mississippi does not.
• Louisiana exempts animal feed (for legally hunted game), while it remains taxable in Mississippi.
• Blinds, tree stands and binoculars purchased for hunting are exempt in Louisiana but taxable in Mississippi.
• Knives manufactured and marketed for use in hunting are exempt in Louisiana, taxable in Mississippi.
• Off-road vehicles designed and intended primarily for hunting are exempt in Louisiana, taxable in Mississippi.

There are other differences as well. For example, the exemption applies to qualifying layaway items in Louisiana but not in Mississippi.

Cash register reprogramming credit

Sales tax holidays create extra work for sellers, as cash registers and point-of-sale systems must be reprogrammed to account for the temporary sales tax exemptions. To help ease the cost of compliance, Louisiana provides a $25 sales tax credit (per cash register reprogrammed) to dealers who incur costs while reprogramming: “Dealers are allowed to claim credit only for reprogramming costs invoiced to them by external providers of services, but not for internal reprogramming services rendered within their businesses by such internal persons as owners, officers, partners, or employees.”

Mississippi does not provide such a credit.

Louisiana Department of Revenue. Mississippi Department of Revenue.

More than a dozen states have sales tax holidays in 2015, exempting items as diverse as notebooks, clothes dryers and guns. Sellers can simplify sales tax compliance in all states by implementing automated sales tax Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Learn more.

photo credit: Madbuster75 via photopin cc