When Is WV Tax-Free Weekend? Dates and Item Price Caps

West Virginia’s tax-free weekend in 2026 runs from Friday, July 31 through Monday, August 3, giving you four full days to buy qualifying clothing, school supplies, instructional materials, laptops, tablets, and sports equipment without paying the state’s 6% sales tax or the 1% municipal sales tax charged in many cities.¹ The holiday begins at 12:00 a.m. Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. Monday.²

Each category has its own price cap, applied per item. Buy as many qualifying items as you want; the exemption looks only at the price of each one.

Clothing and Footwear Up to $125

Any single piece of clothing or footwear priced at $125 or less is exempt. Shirts, pants, jackets, sweaters, sneakers, boots, and dress shoes all qualify. The cap is per item, so five $100 shirts in one transaction are all tax-free.²

Several things you might expect to be covered are not. Jewelry, handbags, wallets, watches, sunglasses, umbrellas, and wigs stay taxable. Protective gear like hard hats and breathing masks is also excluded.¹

School Supplies Up to $50 and Instructional Materials Up to $20

Educational items split into two categories with different caps, and knowing which is which matters at checkout.

School supplies at $50 or less per item cover binders, notebooks, pencils, pens, crayons, markers, calculators, rulers, scissors, folders, erasers, glue, highlighters, lunch boxes, book bags, and similar classroom staples.¹

Instructional materials carry a lower $20 cap, and only four kinds of items qualify: reference books, reference maps and globes, textbooks, and workbooks.³ Educational software, art kits, and other items marketed for learning do not fit this category.

Laptops and Tablets Up to $500

Laptops and tablet computers at $500 or less are tax-free when bought for personal use. The exemption does not cover devices purchased for a trade or business.²

It is also limited to the computer itself. Printers, monitors, external keyboards, and standalone software packages do not qualify.¹ On a $500 laptop, the savings come to about $35 where the 1% municipal tax applies.

Sports Equipment Up to $150

Sports equipment at $150 or less per item is exempt. The state defines the category by list: cleated or spiked athletic shoes, baseball gloves, bowling gloves, boxing gloves, hockey gloves, golf gloves, goggles, hand and elbow guards, life preservers and vests, mouth guards, roller and ice skates, shin guards, shoulder pads, ski boots, ballet and tap shoes, waders, and wetsuits and fins.¹

Helmets, hard hats, and breathing masks are classified as protective equipment rather than sports equipment and remain taxable.³ As with laptops, sports equipment bought for business use is not exempt.²

How the Price Cap Works

If an item costs even a dollar over its category cap, the entire price is taxable. The exemption does not apply to the first $125 of a $140 jacket; the whole $140 is taxed.³

Discounts can push an item under the cap, but only certain kinds. A store coupon or retailer markdown lowers the sales price, so a $140 jacket marked down to $120 qualifies for the $125 clothing exemption. A manufacturer’s coupon does not lower the sales price for threshold purposes, because the retailer gets reimbursed; a $130 jacket bought with a $10 manufacturer’s coupon still counts as $130 and stays taxable.⁴

Online Orders and Time Zones

Online purchases qualify as long as you order and pay during the holiday and the retailer accepts the order for immediate shipment. The item does not have to arrive during the holiday window.¹

When you and the seller sit in different time zones, the seller’s clock controls. An order placed at 12:30 a.m. Eastern on the opening Friday is taxable if the seller is on Pacific Time, where it is still 9:30 p.m. Thursday and the holiday has not yet begun.¹

Returns and Exchanges After the Holiday

Exchange a tax-free item for the same product in a different size or color after the holiday ends and no tax is charged. The original exemption follows the replacement.

Return a tax-free item and apply the credit to a different product, though, and the new item is taxed at the regular rate even if it would have qualified during the holiday. The exemption does not transfer across products.¹

1
West Virginia Tax Division. Sales Tax Holiday Questions and Answers
2
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-15-9s
3
West Virginia State Tax Department. Sales Tax Holiday Questions and Answers
4
Legal Information Institute. West Virginia Code of State Rules 110-15F-8 – Coupons and Discounts