By  Andrea Vasquez

avasquez@vicksburgpost.com

Retailers statewide will host a two-day Sales Tax Holiday next weekend.

From Friday morning to Saturday night, Mississippi’s 7 percent sales tax will be suspended on all clothing and footwear that costs less than $100 per item.

“I think it’ll be a great opportunity for parents to be able to get school clothes,” said Vicksburg Main Street Program Executive Director Kim Hopkins.

The holiday is old news to neighboring states such as Alabama and Tennessee, which have hosted Sales Tax Holidays since 2006. Some Mississippi retailers have complained about losing customers to participating states, so the Mississippi Legislature passed an amendment earlier this year to host a Sales Tax Holiday the last Friday of July, ending the subsequent Saturday.

Norma Massey, the owner of Frederick’s, 1218 Washington St., saw the shopping frenzy when she was in Alabama once during its Sales Tax Holiday.

“You would not have believed the people that were bumper-to-bumper in those stores,” she said.

Massey said that, especially during summer, Vicksburgers tend to leave town to do their shopping, where they may find a wider selection or cheaper prices.

“If we do (the Sales Tax Holiday), that’ll keep people from going to Alabama and other places. We want to keep people here,” Massey said. “It’s a blessing for us to have it here.”

The tax exemption will apply only to eligible clothing and shoes. The Mississippi State Tax Commission has defined clothing as “any article of apparel designed to be worn on the human body, including pants, shirts and blouses, dresses, coats, jackets, belts, hats, undergarments and multiple piece garments sold as a set” and footwear as “any article for human feet except for skis, swim fins, roller blades, skates and any similar items.” All Mississippi merchants will participate for the inaugural year, but cities will have the chance to opt out in future years. Although other states such as Louisiana and Alabama have county or parish taxes in addition to city sales taxes, Mississippi only has one sales tax, which is shared with the city. Waterbury said the City of Vicksburg receives 18-and-a-half cents of every dollar of sales tax collected in the city.

“In some areas of the state, (the Sales Tax Holiday) could be a very significant loss of revenue,” Waterbury said.

But at least this year, customers will have two days to pay exactly what the price tag says — just in time for back-to-school shopping.

“I just think it’s a great opportunity for people to get ready for (going) back to school,” Massey said. “A lot of people are last-minute shoppers anyway, because people have so much to do. … This is one time that last-minute shopping will pay off.”