Chambers urge those to shop local for Tax Free Weekend
CLOVIS (KSMX)- New Mexico’s annual Back-to-School Gross Receipts Tax Holiday begins this Friday and according to local Chamber of Commerce for Curry and Clovis as well as the Portales Chamber of Commerce, this year it’s more important than ever to shop local.
Many businesses in Clovis/Curry County are struggling to keep their doors open, so the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce urges all community members to look to local mall and retail stores for tax-free weekend purchases before going online or out of town.
The 2020 tax holiday starts Friday, August 7 at 12:01 a.m. and runs through midnight on Sunday, August 9.
During that time, the state allows merchants to deduct gross receipts taxes on a wide variety of retail merchandise including clothing and shoes priced at less than $100 per unit, school supplies under $30 per unit for use in standard, general-education classrooms, computers priced under $1,000 and more. Many merchants also absorb the tax on a number of non-qualifying items. Since COVID-19 public health order and occupancy limits remain in effect, online shoppers are still in luck since merchants can offer the deduction for online purchases of qualifying merchandise if they choose to do so.
“Our local retailers including stores in downtown Clovis and North Plains Mall are open and ready to provide a safe shopping experience for our community,” explained Ernie Kos, executive director of the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce. “This tax-free weekend is meant to make back-to-school expenses more manageable for the consumer, but shopping local is also the best way we can make this pandemic more manageable for our businesses!”