IUSA proposes “tax free holiday” to Senator Vi Simpson

Want to save money on textbooks and school supplies?

The IU Student Association met with Indiana Sen. Vi Simpson on Friday to propose a tax-free weekend near the beginning of each semester of school in Indiana in order to help decrease the cost of school supplies.

“This is important and cost beneficial to college students as a whole,” said Jill DeLuna, director of Legislative and Governmental Relations for IUSA.

Many states including Alabama, Florida and Iowa, to name a few, have issued a “sales tax holiday” in which the state sales tax is ignored for one weekend on certain school supplies, according to the proposal.

IUSA’s proposal for legislation stated “that clothing, computers, school supplies, school art supplies and textbooks are to be exempt from the sales tax if sold between 12:01 a.m. on the last Friday of August and 11:59 p.m. the following Sunday” for the fall semester.

Simpson is in full support of the proposal and has offered to draft a bill.

“I would be willing to introduce the bill,” she said. “We need to research, research, research. We need to look to other states and find local supporters.”

After the bill is drafted it needs to be passed by legislation.

“Sometimes it takes a couple of years to pass legislation,” Simpson said. “We need to measure this process in small steps.”