IL Tax Holiday 2022: What You Need to Know for Back to School Shopping

School is right around the corner (Aug. 16!)— and with shopping for fresh supplies on the mind, we wanted to remind you of the Illinois state sales tax holiday taking place from Aug. 5–14. The 10-day period lowers sales tax by 5% on a number of items and shopping categories relevant to classroom supplies, as well as some clothing and footwear.

Those items include:

School supplies

Must be used by students in the course of study, including:

• binders
• book bags
• calculators
• cellophane tape
• blackboard chalk
• composition books
• crayons
• colored pencils
• erasers
• expandable pocket, plastic, and manila folders
• glue, paste, and paste sticks
• highlighters
• index cards and index card boxes
• legal pads
• lunch boxes
• markers
• notebooks and notebook paper, including loose leaf notebook, copy, graph, tracing, manila, colored and construction paper, and poster board
• pencils and pencil leads
• pens, ink, and ink refills for pens
• pencil boxes and other school supply boxes
• pencil sharpeners
• protractors, rulers, and compasses
• scissors
• writing tablets

Clothing

Retail selling price must be less than $125 per item, including:

• household and shop aprons
• athletic supporters
• bathing suits and caps
• belts and suspenders
• coats and jackets
• gloves and mittens
• hats, caps, and ear muffs
• lab coats
• neckties
• rainwear
• rubber pants (covers for cloth diapers)
• scarves
• underwear
• school uniforms
• shorts and pants
• skirts and dresses
• hosiery and pantyhose
• shirts and blouses

Footwear

Retail selling price must be less than $125 per item, including:

• shoes, sneakers, and shoe laces
• sandals
• slippers
• socks and stockings
• footlets
• boots and overshoes
• insoles for shoes
• steel-toed shoes

The holiday also stipulates which products don’t apply to the lower tax rate. Those items are: