Plan for Back-to-School Shopping During Iowa Sales Tax-Free Weekend

Jul 25, 2024

By Carol Ehlers

Consumers can save some money for back-to-school expenses despite inflation by planning for Iowa’s sales tax-free weekend, Aug. 2-3.

This once-a-year event the first Friday and Saturday of August provides an opportunity to expand student wardrobes without paying state and local sales tax. This means consumers will save at least $6 on every $100 they spend for clothing and shoes.

“With the average family spending $864 on back-to-school items, that’s almost as much as people spend for the winter holidays,” says Carol Ehlers, a human sciences specialist in family wellbeing with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “Many households set aside money year-round to help cover their holiday expenses and the same should be for back-to-school purchases. This should not be a surprise and needs a spending plan.”

Iowa's annual sales tax holiday kicks off at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 2 and runs through midnight Saturday, Aug. 3. Although the two-day event falls during the back-to-school shopping season, the exemption applies only to certain apparel and footwear priced less than $100. For a full list of Iowa's tax-free items for the holiday go to the Iowa Department of Revenue's website. Exemptions do not apply to the prices of an item selling for over $100.

Waived on such items are the state sales tax of 6% and any local option sales tax. Many municipalities have a separate 1% sales tax for the city and school district. During the sales tax holiday, a shopper could save between 6%-7% depending on location, or approximately $7 on an item that costs less than $100.

The tax-exempt savings applies only to:

Clothing under $100
Shoes under $100

Examples of a few items exempt from Iowa's sales tax-free weekend include:

Jewelry
Watches and watchbands
Umbrellas
Sports equipment (such as skis, swim fins, roller blades and skates, as well as clothing or footwear designed specifically for athletic use)

Smart shopping tips for Iowa's sales tax-free weekend

“Back-to-school shopping can be a great beginning to an exciting new school year for students. With good planning, families can purchase what they need without breaking the bank,” Ehlers said. “Take full advantage of Iowa’s tax-free weekend by applying the following tips.”

1. Plan ahead

Plan for major clothing and shoe purchases before you go shopping during Iowa’s sales tax-free weekend event.

“Giving each student a chance to inventory what they can start school with and share their expectations, allows family members to better plan,” said Ehlers. “Everyone may not get exactly what they want but talking about it in advance will help set a positive tone.”

Ehlers also suggests discussing what your family can realistically afford. Parents should decide how much the family can set aside for school shopping. Consider using the tax-free holiday time to purchase not just what you need right now, but what your children will need over the next several months. She also recommends avoiding the temptation to use credit cards unless you are able to pay them off in full each month.

2. Set a budget and stick to it

Be careful not to overspend just because the tax-free weekend is occurring. According to the National Retail Federation, the average family with students in kindergarten through 12th grade spent $890 in 2023 on electronics, apparel and other school items. Review what you spent last year for clothing and shoes to create your own spending plan.

“Let students make decisions within the amount of money they are allotted. If they have more ‘wants’ than the family budget can afford, they may need to use some of their own money or earn money from odd jobs to make up the difference,” explained Ehlers. “Allowing students to be a part of these decisions gives them a chance to learn to manage money wisely.”

3. Compare prices

Use the sales circulars from your newspaper to compare prices on the items you wish to buy. Visit websites of several stores where you usually shop. If you tend to buy your kids' jeans or sneakers at national retail outlets, visit their websites during tax-free weekend to find out which store is offering the better deal.

“Some stores may be willing to match the price offered in a competitor's advertisement. Be sure to keep your receipts in case you need to return something or until the warranty expires for more expensive items,” Ehlers said.

4. Know the rules and expect a busy shopping weekend

The Iowa Legislature approved the tax holiday in 2000 to help boost the economy and give consumers a break. Previous tax-free holidays have shown to pump up sales for everyone from big-box retailers to mom-and-pop shops. Some merchants report double-digit increases in sales, compared to a typical August weekend.

Stores have been stocking back-to-school items for nearly a month, but this tax-exempt weekend will be the busiest. Know the rules to make the most of your purchase decisions, Ehlers stressed.

No sales tax, including local option sales tax, will be collected on sales of an article of clothing or footwear having a selling price less than $100.
The exemption does not apply in any way to the price of an item selling for $100 or more.
The exemption applies to each article priced under $100 regardless of how many items are sold on the same invoice to a customer.
For more information and a complete list of what's included in the tax holiday, visit the state's website at https://tax.iowa.gov/iowas-annual-sales-tax-holiday.

Source : iastate.edu

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”