Texas Tax-Free Weekend: What Qualifies, Online Orders, and Returns

The Texas tax-free weekend for 2026 runs Friday, August 7, through midnight Sunday, August 9. During those three days, most clothing, shoes, school supplies, and backpacks priced under $100 per item are exempt from sales tax.¹ That cuts the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax plus local taxes of up to 2 percent, so in most of Texas you save the full 8.25 percent on every qualifying purchase.²

What Qualifies Under $100

The under-$100 limit applies to each item separately, not to your total.³ A cart full of $95 shirts and $80 shoes rings up tax-free as long as no single item hits $100.

Everyday clothing is the heart of the exemption: shirts, pants, dresses, coats, socks, underwear, hats, and belts. For shoes, sneakers, sandals, and general-purpose boots all qualify. Tennis shoes, jogging suits, and swimsuits are covered too, because people wear them outside athletic settings.¹

School supplies get the same under-$100 treatment under a separate section of the Tax Code.⁴ That includes notebooks, binders, pens, pencils, crayons, markers, calculators, protractors, compasses, folders, index cards, legal pads, and lunch boxes. The Comptroller publishes a detailed list each year so you can check specific products.¹

Backpacks qualify, but the definition is narrower than it sounds. A “backpack” is a book bag, messenger bag, or pack with straps worn on the back, including wheeled versions that can also be worn as a backpack. Luggage, briefcases, athletic bags, duffle bags, gym bags, computer bags, purses, and framed backpacks are specifically excluded and stay taxable, even if a student uses one of them for school every day.¹

What Doesn’t Qualify

The law pulls three categories out of the clothing and footwear exemption: athletic or protective gear, accessories, and rentals.³

Athletic and protective gear covers clothing or footwear designed primarily for a sport or safety purpose and not normally worn outside that activity. Golf cleats and football pads are the classic examples. The test is whether ordinary people wear the item in everyday life. If not, it’s taxable.¹

Accessories are taxable regardless of price. The category includes jewelry, watches, wallets, handbags, purses, luggage, and umbrellas.³ Buying a watch alongside a tax-free shirt doesn’t pull the watch into the exemption.

Several other items catch shoppers off guard:

Computers, tablets, and software are explicitly excluded from the back-to-school holiday.
Textbooks are excluded under current law.
Clothing subscription boxes are taxable even if the contents would qualify individually.
Fabric, thread, buttons, and zippers do not count as clothing.
Alterations, embroidery, and cleaning services remain taxable, even on qualifying garments.

Online Orders and Shipping Charges

You don’t have to shop in person. Orders placed and paid for online, by phone, or by mail during the holiday qualify, and the item can be delivered later without losing the exemption.¹ What matters is that your payment is accepted and the seller has the item or is ready to ship it within the holiday window.

Watch shipping charges carefully, because the seller’s delivery fee is part of the item’s total sales price. A $95 pair of jeans with a $10 shipping charge becomes a $105 purchase, pushes past the $100 threshold, and becomes fully taxable.¹ If an item sits close to $100, check whether free shipping is available before you check out.

Layaway and Rain Checks

Layaway works in both directions. Place an item on layaway during the holiday and it’s exempt when you make the final payment later. Already have an item on layaway? Make the final payment during the holiday weekend and that item qualifies too.¹

Rain checks don’t work the same way. A rain check or special order issued during the holiday doesn’t lock in the tax-free price. If you don’t pay for the item until after the weekend ends, full sales tax applies. The money has to change hands within the holiday window.¹

Returns and Exchanges

Returning a tax-free item after the holiday for a cash refund has no tax consequence, because no tax was collected to begin with. Exchanges are trickier. Swapping a tax-free item for a different product after the holiday generally means normal sales tax applies to the replacement, since that sale happens outside the exemption period. If a retailer won’t adjust the tax when it should have been exempt, the Comptroller offers Form 00-985 to file a refund claim directly.

Other Texas Tax-Free Weekends

August isn’t the only tax-free period Texas runs. Three other holidays appear earlier in the year.

Emergency Preparation Supplies

This holiday falls in late April, ahead of hurricane season. For 2026, it runs April 25 through April 27. Qualifying items include portable generators under $3,000, storm protection items like shutters and ladders under $300, and smaller supplies like batteries, flashlights, and first aid kits under $75. There’s no limit on how many qualifying items you can buy.

Energy Star and Water-Efficient Products

Both share Memorial Day weekend. In 2026 that’s May 23 through May 25. The Energy Star holiday covers air conditioners priced at $6,000 or less, refrigerators at $2,000 or less, and appliances including ceiling fans, clothes washers, dishwashers, dehumidifiers, and qualifying light bulbs.⁵ The water-efficient products holiday runs on the same dates and covers items used to conserve groundwater, recharge water tables, or reduce evaporation, including soaker hoses, drip-irrigation systems, and mulch.⁶

1
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Sales Tax Holiday Tax Free Weekend
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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Sales and Use Tax
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 151.326 – Clothing and Footwear for Limited Period
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 151.327 – School Supplies and School Backpacks Before Start of School
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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. ENERGY STAR Sales Tax Holiday
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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Water-Efficient Products Sales Tax Holiday