By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

Families struggling with higher prices for food, fuel and energy could get a break this weekend.

Missouri’s annual sales-tax holiday starts today and goes through midnight Sunday. It exempts state sales taxes (4.225 percent) on some clothing, school supplies and computer equipment.

Cities and counties can opt out, and many Southwest Missouri municipalities do so. Joplin, Carthage, Carl Junction, Cassville, Aurora and Neosho will continue to charge their local sales taxes. In addition, three area counties — Jasper, Newton and Barry — will not participate and will still collect the county portion of the sales tax. They are among 170 cities, 52 counties and eight taxing districts that have opted out of the sales-tax holiday.

Webb City and Lamar are among the cities that will participate.

The tax exemption is limited to clothing under $100 an article, school supplies not to exceed $50 per purchase, computer software of $350 or less, personal computers of $3,500 or less, and other computer devices of $3,500 or less.

Clothing includes any wearing apparel, including footwear, but does not apply to watches, jewelry and handbags, for example. School supplies include any item normally used by a student in a standard classroom, such as textbooks, paper, pens or pencils, art supplies, backpacks, calculators, and globes. Personal computers can include laptops or desktop systems.

“We agree with the state that those are things that should be excluded from the sales tax,” said Steve Garrett, city administrator for Webb City. The city has a 2.5 percent sales tax.

Asked what the sales-tax waiver costs the city, Garrett said: “We looked at that last year. ... What it cost might be in the neighborhood of $20,000, or something like that.”

On the Net

A detailed explanation of tax-exempt items, and a list of the cities and counties not participating are available via the Missouri Department of Revenue’s Web site at dor.mo.gov/tax/business/sales/taxholiday/.