As Chicagoland’s moms and dads plan trips to Target and Walmart to pick up binders, backpacks and pencils, here’s a bit of cost-saving advice: Do it between Aug. 7 and Aug. 16.
You’ll save a smidge on sales tax.
Those 10 days comprise the window of time when the state’s sales tax dips 5 percentage points, dropping from 6.25% to 1.25% for qualifying back-to-school items such as crayons, pencils, shoes, socks and more essentials.
The sorts of things every kid needs before heading back to the classroom.
The average family expects to spend about $611 on back-to-school shopping this year, according to a recent NerdWallet survey, in which case Illinois’ sales tax holiday would save roughly $30.
That’s not nothing, particularly for families on tight budgets. As the survey noted, average estimated spending is down about $130 from last year, a sign that families are feeling the pinch. Any little bit helps.
About 20 states are implementing sales tax holidays of some sort this year, according to the Tax Foundation, which noted that Illinois’ back-to-school tax holiday is a renewal of a similar tax-break window previously leveraged in 2010 and 2022.
We like a tax holiday as much as the next editorial board, and every day we hand over less of our hard-earned money is a day worth cheering.
We also recognize that Illinois lawmakers are celebrating a temporary discount worth about the price of a deep-dish pizza. Meanwhile, the state’s broader tax environment remains unchanged.
While the problem of affordability will linger long past Aug. 16, the discounts will go away.
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Temporary tax breaks are welcome, but they make for better politics than policy. Most families don’t buy more school supplies; they simply shift purchases by a few days. The result is less tax revenue without much additional economic activity.
These holidays also allow lawmakers to claim they’re easing the tax burden without tackling the harder question of why taxes remain so high the rest of the year.
“If you want to make things more affordable, the best thing you can do is put a little more money in people’s pockets,” as Gov. JB Pritzker said in a recent interview. Exactly right. But maybe apply that sentiment for more than 10 days.
The same logic was behind Springfield’s recent decision to delay the latest increase in Illinois’ motor fuel tax. Rather than reconsider the tax hike itself, lawmakers simply postponed the increase for six months, until Jan. 1, 2027 — safely after the November election. Like the back-to-school holiday, it eases the burden briefly while leaving the underlying policy intact.
We’re supposed to cheer these scraps of savings. But if a tax holiday is worth celebrating, maybe it’s the overall tax ecosystem that deserves another look.
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