Save Money on These Apple Products During Upcoming Tax Holidays

In addition to its usual summer promotions, Apple wants to ensure you’re ready for back-to-school shopping by helping you take advantage of the upcoming US Tax Holiday season.

Every summer, several US states declare a Tax Holiday where specific categories of products are sold with the usual sales taxes either reduced or dropped entirely.

It’s a great time to save a few bucks on purchases, but it can be a challenge since the rules are different in every state, and they sometimes even change from year to year. Many states offer tax holidays throughout the year, but not all include Apple products.

For example, many states only cover clothing and school supplies, and some of those, like Florida, have only recently added computers to the list. Others, such as Texas, have multiple Tax Holidays throughout the year that cover different products, ranging from emergency preparedness equipment in April to clothing, backpacks, and school supplies in August.

These limitations don’t just apply to product categories. Most states also limit how much you can spend tax-free, either overall or for specific items or classes of items.

Needless to say, it can get confusing. Thankfully, Apple has provided some much-needed clarity on how each state’s Tax Holiday rules will apply when buying Apple products.

On its new Tax Holiday page, Apple outlines which products qualify in each participating state. This includes iPads, Macs, and third-party products sold in Apple’s online and retail stores.

While these tax holidays all occur over the next few weeks, they’re slightly different in each state. Florida offers the most extended Tax Holiday of those on Apple’s list, running for nearly two weeks, from July 24 to August 6. The rest are weekend affairs, starting with Alabama this Friday, July 21, and ending with West Virginia, which runs through a four-day weekend from August 4–7.

In broad terms, you’ll be limited to purchasing computers and accessories under $1,500 in Florida, Missouri, and Tennessee. While the exact list of what qualifies as a computer accessory varies between states, the good news is that they all include the iPad. The same is true in Alabama and West Virginia, where the limits are $750 and $500, respectively.

West Virginia also only includes “laptop and tablet computers,” not accessories, so the only qualifying tax-free products in that state are Apple’s ninth or tenth-generation iPad.

Of the six states Apple has listed so far, Arkansas is by far the most generous. During its two-day sales tax holiday on August 5th and 6th, you’ll be able to spend as much on a Mac or iPad as you like, with no upper limit. Arkansas is also the only state where you’ll be able to buy an iPhone tax-free. Technically speaking, the state’s rules say the purchase has to be “an electronic item commonly used by a student in a course of study,” but Apple isn’t likely to split hairs if you really want to use the occasion to splurge on a Mac Pro.

While all Macs and iPads qualify in every state, subject to the maximum spending limitations, the list of qualifying accessories varies widely. This is where Apple’s page is quite helpful. For example, Florida includes AppleCare, as long as it’s purchased at the same time as an eligible item, while Missouri limits software purchases to $350 but allows the Apple TV set-top box to qualify under the category of “hard drives” — something most of us wouldn’t have realized if Apple’s lawyers hadn’t pored over the fine print of state law to let us know.

At least four other states, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Carolina, also have tax holidays scheduled for next month that include the “computers” category, with purchase limits between $1,000 and $3,000. Apple products will almost surely qualify, so if you live in one of these states, it’s worth revisiting Apple’s Tax Holiday page as the dates get closer to see if there are any updates with more specific information on qualifying products and accessories.