Tax-Free Weekend in Massachusetts

There was a state sales tax holiday in Massachusetts over the weekend, where shoppers didn't have to fork over 5% of the purchase price of items up to $2500 to our friends at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR).

I didn't participate in the consumer frenzy this weekend though, since I had to provide IT support for a company with a retail presence in Massachusetts. Since the 2004 and 2005 tax-free weekends were the busiest days of the year for this company (including Christmas season!), they had a swat team of IT support personnel on hand to make sure the network, servers, and databases would allow salespeople to enter sales orders all weekend long.

And although Massachusetts consumers were in a shopping frenzy, I think that Massachusetts businesses were the big winner here. It is certainly a no brainer when I compare the $125 I could have saved on a $2500 HDTV to the amount of money I was paid for my services for the weekend (which the DOR will get a cut of).

Tax-free shopping spree: Retailers prep for buying frenzy
Tax-free weekend starts off strong
No-tax lacks luster: ‘Holiday’ weekend passes quietly