Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Stores around eastern New Mexico are getting ready for the onslaught of customers — and savings — for this weekend’s tax-free holiday, beginning on Friday.
The only hitch, though, is that Texas’ tax-free weekend falls during the same time as New Mexico’s this year.
Olive + June’s owner Lindsay Matthews is staying positive on the coinciding tax-free holidays, because people, she said, like to support local businesses.
“I don’t think (it will affect us) any differently than normal,” Matthews said. “A lot of people love to drive and go somewhere else for a day or two, but that’s every weekend. People like supporting their local communities. But I am not going to deny it is fun to go shopping somewhere else, and with two kids, I do not have the luxury of doing that very often.”
GW Boutique owner Gizelle Ward said her biggest concern is just making sure people know when the tax-free weekend is, and she has mailed out postcards to promote her store and the holiday.
“What I usually notice is I have to tell people it’s a tax-free weekend,” Ward said. “They aren’t even aware that it is, so that’s why I decided to send out postcards. If they are in the frame of mind that it’s the first weekend in August, and now that it’s the second, they may think it’s already come and gone.”
For General Manager and Arizona native Don Fisher at Sears, the tax-free weekend is a whole new beast.
“I’m brand new to this store,” Fisher said. “I’ve been here for two months. I came from Phoenix where there is no tax-free anything in Arizona.”
Fisher said he’s received nothing but positive feedback from his New Mexico peers about the tax-free holiday, and said the benefits “far outweigh” the cost to make it happen.
“To actually execute (tax-free weekend)? It really costs hardly nothing,” Fisher said. “The advantages we’re going to get from the additional sales stimulate the economy. The cost for us to do this as a company is relatively minuscule with the government giving us this break. We can pass along the benefits to our customers.”
In 2005, the state Legislature established the fist “gross receipts tax holiday,” to fall the first weekend of August from 12:01 a.m. Friday through midnight the following Sunday, according to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department (NMTRD).
This year, the holiday falls Friday through Sunday.
Not everything is tax-deductible, though. Only clothing or non-athletic shoes that cost less than $100 qualify, and only computers “sold for no more than $1,000” qualify, according to the NMTRD.
The law also “specifically excludes watches, radios, compact disc players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable desktop telephones, copiers, office equipment, furniture or fixtures,” from the tax-free holiday, and any associated monitor, speaker or set of speakers, printer, keyboard, microphone or mouse that sells for more than $500, according to the NMTRD.
Tax-free weekend
For a full list of tax-free items:
