CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Thursday marks the first day of Freedom Week, a seven-day tax-free holiday geared towards getting people outside and supporting local businesses.
Freedom Week is a holiday you may have heard about, it started out by giving discounts on school supplies and hurricane items.
Those items still qualify for the discount, but the new additions add a fun twist for Southwest Florida.
“We have a button in there that allows us to put a sales tax on and sales tax off. so what we would do is just take that off and then everything that would be rung up will have just a flat fee,” said Jonathan Black, Owner of Crazy Lure Bait and Tackle.
The state has said the goal of Freedom Week is to help boost our economy as Florida continues to rebound from the pandemic.
So for the next seven days, shoppers who buy general outdoor supplies, which includes fishing gear won’t have to pay a sales tax if the price stays under a certain dollar amount.
- first $5: bait or fishing tackle
- first $30:tackle boxes or bags
- first $75: rods and reels
That means customers will not pay a sales tax on the first $5 on bait or tackle, no sales tax on the first $30 on tackle boxes or bags, and tax-free on the first $75 for rods and reels.
Black says it’s incentives like this that show Florida is dedicated to helping businesses rebound from the pandemic.
“The state of Florida has done a very good job throughout the whole COVID situation from start to finish. Multiple programs out there that we can take advantage of and this is just one more where the state says, hey, we will give you a little bit on an incentive here to help you out to hello the consumers out, and to move forward as we go through this,” he said.
Freedom Week also gives a leg up to other businesses.
Unlike fishing gear, admissions for concerts, state parks, and museums will all be completely tax-free.
The events can be anytime from now until December 31, 2021, but must be bought this week to get the tax discount.
