Downtown Summer Fest Sales Coincide with Sale Tax Free Weekend

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

With the Mississippi sales tax holiday this weekend, the Oxford Square Alliance is encouraging shoppers to visit local retailers to their back-school shopping with several events planned on Saturday during the annual Summer Fest Event.

The shops around the Square will hold sidewalk sales or special sales events from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On the Lafayette County Courthouse lawn, there will be kid-friendly events including a bounce house, balloon artist and face painting. Free snow cones and cotton candy will be available for all.
Mark Huelse, Oxford alderman and Oxford Square Alliance board member, said the event is about celebrating Oxford and its local businesses during the last “quiet” weekend of the summer.
Historically, there were sidewalk sales around this time of the year,” he said. “The Alliance took it a little further and planned family-friendly events and make it a celebration as well as a time for sales.”
This weekend is also the Mississippi Sales Tax Holiday where Mississippians can purchase clothing and footwear from 12:01 a.m. Friday through midnight Saturday and not pay sales tax on items that cost less than $100.
The “holiday” was passed in the 2009 Legislative Session.
Clothing is any article of apparel designed to be worn on the human body including pants, shirts and blouses, dresses, coats, jackets, belts, hats, undergarments and multiple piece garments sold as a set. “Footwear” is any article of apparel for human feet except for skis, swim fins, roller blades, skates, and any similar items. “
Accessories, such as jewelry, handbags, luggage, umbrellas, wallets, watches, backpacks, briefcases, and similar items do not qualify for the Sales Tax Holiday.
Items priced at $100 or more are subject to sales tax at the regular retail rate of 7 percent. For example, a customer purchases two shirts at $50 each, a pair of slacks at $75, and a pair of shoes at $110. No sales tax is due on the sale of the two shirts and the pair of slacks at a cost of $175, even though the combined cost exceeds the $100 threshold. However, sales tax is due on the entire $110 for the shoes since they exceed the $100 threshold.