The Illinois Back-to-School State Tax Holiday opens today and runs through August 16. It waives the state sales tax on back-to-school necessities. This 10-day period is expected to provide an estimated $10 million in savings to online and in-store consumers on essential back-to-school items, including clothing, footwear, and school supplies. During the tax holiday, the state will waive its 5% sales tax on qualifying purchases. Any applicable local sales tax will continue to apply. Rob Karr is President and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

Qualifying clothing and footwear with a retail selling price of less than $125 per item are eligible for the reduced tax rate. Examples of qualifying items include shirts, pants, dresses, shoes, and other everyday clothing items. Qualifying school supplies, including items such as notebooks, folders, binders, pens, pencils, and calculators, are also eligible for the reduced tax rate. There is no price limit on qualifying school supplies.