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Illinois' first Sales Tax Holiday lasts 10 days
While Missouri has been offering the Back to School Tax Holiday for seven years now, this is the state of Illinois first year.
Illinois tax holiday runs a total of 10 days, considerably longer than Missouri's three day program. It started Friday Aug. 6 and continues through Sunday, Aug. 15.
This provides Illinois families more time to select and purchase items their children need for back to school, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
But some Illinois lawmakers were quoted in stories over the weekend saying they didn't think their state, which has a $13 billion budget gap, could afford to waive its 5 percent sales tax.
Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, Ill., told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the tax holiday would result in a $60 million loss in state revenues. (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_cfec0691-69a3-5f0d-b5e3-6ebb40f68159.html)
The Missouri Department of Revenue doesn't have an official estimate of how much the state "loses" from waiving its 4.225 percent sales tax during the tax holiday weekend, according to Ted Farnen, DOR spokesman.
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