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Governor signs sales tax holiday into law

E-mail|Link|Comments () August 5, 2010 01:44 PM

By L. Finch, Globe Correspondent

Bargain hunters, you can pencil in that date now.

Governor Deval Patrick today signed into law an economic development bill that, among other things, provides for a sales tax holiday on Aug. 14 and 15. The sales tax will be lifted on most retail items up to $2,500 as well as on beer, wine and alcohol.

Taxpayers could save anywhere from $20 million to $23 million, the Department of Revenue has estimated.

"With consumers representing 70 percent of the economy, this is a very effective stimulus to bring important sales to local employers," Jon B. Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Tax-free holidays were created to encourage residents to spend more in their home states during a typically slow period. In 1997, New York became the first state to have a sales tax holiday. Now, as the country toils through a slow economic recovery, a record 19 states are having sales tax holidays, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators, a trade association in Washington, D.C., the Globe reported Wednesday.