TAX ADMINISTRATION UPDATES Alabama Cordova The city of Cordova is changing tax administration from Avenu to ALDOR for its sales, use, and rental taxes. The PJ rates are ½ the corporate limit rates.
Hollywood The town of Hollywood is changing tax administration from Avenu to ALDOR for its sales, use, and rental taxes. The PJ rates are ½ the corporate limit rates.
Thomasville The city of Thomasville is changing tax administration from Avenu to ALDOR for its sales, use, and rental taxes. This includes unabated Thomasville rates. The PJ rates are ½ the corporate limit rates. CONTENT UPDATES Alabama As indicated in the Rate Updates section above, Alabama's temporary pause on the state sales and use tax for food and groceries ended on June 30, 2026. This pause never applied to city or county taxes on food, only the state portion. Starting July 1, 2026, the QuickBooks food related tax category codes will now include both the state and local food tax rates again. For more details on the temporary state tax pause, click here.
Arizona Beginning July 1, 2026 the waste tire fee is 2% of the sales price of each new tire, up to a maximum of $4.73 per tire. More information regarding the waste tire fee is available on the Arizona Department of Revenue website.
Connecticut Beginning July 1, 2026 sales tax will no longer apply to nonelectronic school supplies in Connecticut. This is a year round exemption and not a limited-time event. There is no price limit. Nonelectronic school supplies include items such as backpacks, notebooks, pens and pencils, crayons, rulers, lunchboxes, paper and similar. All impacted tax categories will reflect this exemption starting July 1, 2026. More information can be found on the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services website.
Also effective July 1, 2026, Connecticut's Prepaid Wireless E-911 Fee increases to $0.74 per retail transaction, as announced by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services pursuant to the annual fee re-rating by the Connecticut Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) under Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 28-30a through 28-30f. The fee applies to retail sales of prepaid wireless telecommunications services, including prepaid wireless phone cards, recharge or refill authorization codes, and prepaid cell phones and devices preloaded with airtime minutes. The new fee amount has been applied to the relevant tax categories effective July 1, 2026, and will remain in effect through June 30, 2027.
Illinois Illinois released the list of counties and municipalities opting into the 1% grocery tax effective July 1, 2026. The relevant tax categories have been updated to reflect the rate in these localities. A list of localities opting in can be found here.
Maryland Maryland has amended its exemption for precious metal bullion and coins by eliminating the requirement that the sale be made at the Baltimore Convention Center to be eligible for exemption. Therefore, effective July 1, 2026 these items are exempt when sold for more than $1,000 anywhere in the state. The relevant tax categories have been changed to be exempt when sold for over $1,000 effective July 1, 2026. The bill may be found here.
Virginia Virginia's sales and use tax exemption for gold, silver, and platinum bullion and legal tender coins is scheduled to expire July 1, 2026. The exemption was last extended through budget language in the 2025 Appropriation Act, and no further extension has been enacted. As a result, these items are set to become taxable on July 1, 2026 absent further legislative action. The relevant tax categories have been changed to taxable effective July 1, 2026. More information may be found here. SALES TAX HOLIDAYS Alabama Alabama's annual back to school sales tax holiday runs from Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19, 2026. During the holiday, the following types of items are exempt from state sales tax. Depending on the city or county, they may also be exempt from local tax.
Computers, computer software and school computer supplies, $1,173 or less Clothing, $156 or less School supplies, school art supplies and school instructional material, $78 or less Required textbooks on an official school book list, less than $78 All other books, $47 or less
In QuickBooks, all Alabama localities are included in this holiday and apply the above temporary threshold exemptions to the qualifying tax category codes. Users may override these default local exemption settings with custom local rates, if needed. Mississippi Mississippi’s annual clothing and school supplies sales tax holiday occurs July 10 through July 12, 2026. During this tax holiday period, Mississippi sales taxes are not collected or paid on purchases of articles of clothing, footwear, or school supplies if the sales price of a single item is less than $100. All relevant tax categories will be exempt during the holiday period. New Mexico New Mexico's annual back to school tax free holiday runs from Friday, July 31 through Sunday, August 2, 2026. During this time, the law allows retailers to deduct qualifying sales from gross receipts, letting them sell the items tax free. The following types of items are exempt from both state and local sales tax during the holiday:
Computers, $1,000 or less Computer-related items, $500 or less Calculators, less than $200 Clothing, footwear and accessories, less than $100 School supplies, less than $30
QuickBooks qualifying tax category codes support these temporary threshold exemptions. Puerto Rico Puerto Rico's annual back-to-school sales tax holiday occurs July 17 through July 18, 2026. During this tax holiday period, Puerto Rico sales and use taxes are not collected or paid on purchases of qualifying school uniforms and school materials. All relevant tax categories will be exempt during the holiday period. Tennessee Tennessee's traditional sales tax holiday on clothing, school supplies and computers runs from Friday, July 31 through Sunday, August 2, 2026. The following types of items are exempt from both state and local sales tax during the holiday:
Computers, $1,500 or less Clothing, $100 or less School supplies, $100 or less
QuickBooks qualifying tax category codes support these temporary threshold exemptions. West Virginia West Virginia’s back to school sales tax holiday will take place Friday July 31st through Monday August 3rd. During this time, state and local sales tax will not be charged or collected on the sale of clothing and footwear with a sales price of $125 or less per item, school instructional materials with a sales price of $20 or less per item, school supplies with a sales price of $50 or less per item, sports equipment with a sales price of $150 or less per item, and laptops and tablets with a sales price of $500 or less per item. All relevant tax categories will be exempt during the holiday period under the appropriate thresholds. USING QUICKBOOKS: THE ECONOMIC NEXUS TRACKER Are you or your clients growing your online sales and shipping to new states? You might be required to collect sales tax there. QuickBooks Online has a built-in Economic Nexus tracker in the Sales Tax Center. It automatically monitors your out-of-state sales and alerts you when you are approaching or have crossed a state’s economic nexus threshold (such as $100,000 in sales or a certain transaction count). More information may be found here. SALES TAX NEWS Colorado Effective July 1, 2026, Colorado's retail delivery fee will increase from $0.28 to $0.31 per retail delivery. The fee, administered by the Colorado Department of Revenue and adjusted annually for inflation, applies to deliveries by motor vehicle in the state that include at least one item of tangible personal property subject to Colorado state sales or use tax. More information may be found here.
Florida We are monitoring HB 7031E which includes several changes impacting sales tax. One anticipated change supported by the Governor is changing the dates for the annual back to school sales tax holiday to July 20 through August 20 versus the dates provided by the current law which are August 1 through August 31. Upon enactment, all affected tax categories will be set to exempt, subject to the applicable thresholds, throughout the holiday period.
Massachusetts On May 5, 2026, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue issued Directive 26-1 providing guidance on sales tax calculation following the U.S. Treasury's discontinuation of penny production on November 12, 2025. The Directive clarifies that sales tax must be calculated and collected based on the exact purchase price, even when the final cash total is rounded up or down to the nearest nickel. Where rounding is applied, it must be applied to the total transaction price rather than to individual item prices. No change to QuickBook’s sales tax calculation is required; tax continues to be computed on the exact pre-rounding amount. TAX AMNESTY OPPORTUNITIES If your business has unpaid or underreported sales tax in Illinois or Indiana, both states are offering limited-time amnesty programs this summer that waive penalties and interest on qualifying liabilities.
Indiana July 15 – September 9, 2026 Indiana's Tax Amnesty Program lets taxpayers settle qualifying past-due liabilities, including sales and use tax, with penalties, interest, and collection fees waived. Eligible liabilities are for tax periods ending before January 1, 2024. Businesses that participated in Indiana's 2005 or 2015 amnesty programs are not eligible. Payment plans are available for businesses owing more than $500, with full payment due by June 7, 2027. Learn more at the Indiana Department of Revenue's Tax Amnesty 2026 page.
Illinois August 1 – October 31, 2026 Illinois is running a Remote Retailer Amnesty Program for businesses that sell to Illinois customers without a physical presence in the state and have unpaid sales tax for reporting periods from January 1, 2021, through June 30, 2026. The program offers a simplified application through MyTax Illinois and simplified tax rates: 9% for general merchandise and 1.75% for qualifying items like groceries and medicines. Learn more at https://tax.illinois.gov/programs/illinoistaxamnesty.html.
Please note that these are the changes that have been released by the states as of the date of this e-mail and there is a possibility other small changes could be enacted late or retroactively by the states.
QuickBooks has been updated to account for these changes. Now you will get the updated rates and rules applied automatically to your invoice. Click below to try it out.
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