State legislature, make it happen. Better still, feel free to take the framework and run with it. Yes, the governor’s proposal includes a bunch of the sales tax holidays Floridians have become accustomed to including the school sales tax holiday, the disaster preparedness holiday, the Freedom Week tax holiday, an Energy Star appliance tax holiday and the Tim the Tool Man Taylor home improvement sales tax holiday. And while thinking of Home Improvement brings back good memories, my preference would be for all of those types of sales tax holidays to become memories. As I’ve explained in discussing Florida’s sales tax holidays... Do you actually use them? Probably not. Analysis shows 80% of Florida households don’t intentionally make use of Florida’s sales tax holidays. And as for those who do, that’s often not a good thing either. Those most likely to intentionally time purchases with sales tax holidays are those who are the most likely to be using debt. Florida’s sales tax rate is 6%. Currently, the average credit card APR is over 21% - the highest on record. Obviously saving 6% in taxes to pay 21% in interest is about the furthest thing from Floridians personally economically benefiting – which is the purpose of the holidays after all. And as the fed continues to raise interest rates, they’ll only continue higher. Previously I’d suggested this as a better approach... add up the total value of them and reduce the state sales tax rate on all purchases throughout the year by a nominal rate decrease.
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