Published August 12, 2010

Uncle Sam is getting ready for the weekend. (Jeff Sandquist/Flickr)

This weekend in Massachusetts: The more you spend, the more you save!*

Bay State shoppers will be lining up in droves Aug. 14-15 — or maybe they won’t, since so many retailers let you arrange tax-free purchases in advance now. It amazes me, what people will people will do to save a few dozen dollars. My boss is buying a mattress and a television. Another colleague is considering an iPad for her son.

What the state economy loses in tax revenue is more than made up for in consumer spending, the Globe reported:

Between 2005 and 2008, total sales revenue rose in Massachusetts during the tax-free shopping weekend from the usual $100 million to approximately $500 million, according to the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. Last August, however, total sales were down an average of 20 percent compared with August 2008, the association said.

Cranky Howie Carr opines:

It’s funny how the state couldn’t “afford” a sales-tax holiday last year, but this year it can. Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that this is an election year for the State House, and 2009 wasn’t?

Meanwhile, New Hampshire is taking great pleasure in reminding Massachusetts that sales are tax-free every day in the Granite State.

So, how will you spend your sales tax holiday? What are you buying?

____

*Unless you spend more than $2,500, in which case the sales-tax exemption no longer applies. (more details at Mass.gov)