§ 144.049 RSMo — Sales tax holiday for clothing, personal computers, and school supplies, when — exemptions — discounts, how treated — exchanges and returns, how treated

1. For purposes of this section, the following terms mean:

(1) "Clothing" , any article of wearing apparel intended to be worn on or about the human body including, but not limited to, disposable diapers for infants or adults and footwear. The term shall include, but not be limited to, cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing. Items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify for the exemption. The term shall not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles; and

(2) "Personal computers" , a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, and a keyboard and devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer, such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, soundcard, or video card;

(3) "School supplies" , any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including but not limited to textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, chalk, maps, and globes. The term shall not include watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. School supplies shall also include computer software having a taxable value of three hundred fifty dollars or less and any graphing calculator having a taxable value of one hundred fifty dollars or less.

2. In each year beginning on or after January 1, 2005, there is hereby specifically exempted from state and local sales tax law all retail sales of any article of clothing having a taxable value of one hundred dollars or less, all retail sales of school supplies not to exceed fifty dollars per purchase, all computer software with a taxable value of three hundred fifty dollars or less, all graphing calculators having a taxable value of one hundred fifty dollars or less, and all retail sales of personal computers or computer peripheral devices not to exceed one thousand five hundred dollars, during a three-day period beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ending at midnight on the Sunday following. If a purchaser and seller are located in two different time zones, the time zone of the purchaser's location shall determine the authorized exemption period.

3. This section shall not apply to any sales which take place within the Missouri state fairgrounds.

4. This section applies to sales of items bought for personal use only.

5. This section may not apply to any retailer when less than two percent of the retailer's merchandise offered for sale qualifies for the sales tax holiday. The retailer may offer a sales tax refund in lieu of the sales tax holiday.

6. A sale of property that is eligible for an exemption under subsection 1 of this section but is purchased under a layaway sale shall only qualify for an exemption if:

(1) Final payment on a layaway order is made by, and the property is given to, the purchaser during the exemption period; or

(2) The purchaser selects the property and the seller accepts the order for the property during the exemption period, for immediate delivery upon full payment, even if delivery is made after the exemption period.

7. The exemption of a bundled transaction shall be calculated as provided by law for all other bundled transactions.

8. (1) For any discount offered by a seller that is a reduction of the sales price of the product, the discounted sales price shall determine whether the sales price falls below the price threshold provided in subsection 2 * of this section. A coupon that reduces the sales price shall be treated as a discount only if the seller is not reimbursed for the coupon amount by a third party.

(2) If a discount applies to the total amount paid by a purchaser rather than to the sales price of a particular product and the purchaser has purchased both exempt property and taxable property, the seller shall allocate the discount based on the total sales prices of the taxable property compared to the total sales prices of all property sold in the same transaction.

9. Items that are normally sold as a single unit shall continue to be sold in that manner and shall not be priced separately and sold as individual items.

10. Items that are purchased during an exemption period but that are not delivered to the purchaser until after the exemption period due to the item not being in stock shall qualify for an exemption. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to an item that was delivered during an exemption period but was purchased prior to or after the exemption period.

11. (1) If a purchaser purchases an item of eligible property during an exemption period but later exchanges the item for a similar eligible item after the exemption period, no additional tax shall be due on the new item.

(2) If a purchaser purchases an item of eligible property during an exemption period but later returns the item after the exemption period and receives credit on the purchase of a different nonexempt item, the appropriate sales tax shall be due on the sale of the newly purchased item.

(3) If a purchaser purchases an item of eligible property before an exemption period but during the exemption period returns the item and receives credit on the purchase of a different item of eligible property, no sales tax shall be due on the sale of the new item if the new item is purchased during the exemption period.

(4) For a sixty-day period immediately following the end of the exemption period, if a purchaser returns an exempt item, no credit for or refund of sales tax shall be given unless the purchaser provides a receipt or invoice that shows tax was paid or the seller has sufficient documentation to show that tax was paid on the item being returned.