Ohio will hold a three-day sales tax holiday from Aug. 7 through Aug. 9, offering temporary sales-tax relief on certain clothing, school supplies and instructional materials — but the event is notably scaled back from last year.
Who benefits and what’s excluded
The exemption will apply to clothing priced at $75 or less and to school supplies and instructional materials priced at $20 or less. Last year’s holiday covered a much broader range of items and higher price thresholds, a change that means shoppers will see smaller per-item savings this August.
| Item category | Price cap |
|---|---|
| Clothing | $75 |
| School supplies & instructional materials | $20 |
Local reaction
In Cincinnati, parents welcomed the timing even as they acknowledged the reduced scope. Naomi Goines, a mother of a 3-year-old who lives downtown, said the brief window aligns with when families are shopping for the new school year.
“This is school season. This is when people are buying things like clothes and school supplies. So I feel like that's what makes it more beneficial, is the timing of it,” Goines said.
Parents with larger households still see value in even modest savings. Joshua Holton, who has children in the Cincinnati Public School District, said the smaller holiday remains helpful.
“It's good that they're doing something like that because it is beneficial for large families and small,” Holton said. “Any dollar adds up, all of that, over time.”
Impact on small businesses
Some downtown merchants said the trimmed-back holiday could blunt the boost to local retail traffic that an extended, broader exemption provided last year. Seth Pope, owner of Well Made Vintage on West Fourth Street, said an earlier two-week, higher-threshold event encouraged shoppers to buy locally.
“I really enjoyed having two weeks last year. And I really thought it was a great excuse for people to just get out and go shopping in places like this,” Pope said.
Pope plans to complement the state’s limited exemption with in-store discounts during the holiday weekend to attract customers looking for bargains.
What shoppers should know
- The sales tax holiday lasts three days: Aug. 7–9.
- Only qualifying items at or below the listed price caps are exempt.
- Retailers may run additional sales to coincide with the holiday, but those discounts are independent of state tax exemptions.
As families prepare for the school year, the narrowed sales tax holiday will provide targeted, if smaller, relief. How much benefit it produces for households and local retailers will depend on shoppers’ ability to find qualifying items within the reduced price thresholds.
