Florida back-to-school shoppers began stocking up Saturday as the annual sales tax holiday moved into the weekend.

With the new school year approaching, parents and students can save money on their back-to-school shopping with the sales tax-free holiday through Sunday.

The sales tax exemption for clothing items is increased to $100 or less per item from $75 or less per item in 2013. The sales tax exemption for personal computers and certain computer-related accessories will be on the first $750 of the sales price rather than $750 or less per item in 2013.

The Clearwater Best Buy store was packed Saturday, as shoppers took advantage of the tax break on electronics.

"The common classroom requires or really asks for technology to be in everybody's hands," store general manager Tom Gray said.

Back-to-school shopping used to be mainly about notebooks and calculators. Now it's about tablets, printers and other electronics.

When I was at USF, we had three computers tied together, giving us an aggregate 300 megabytes of ram," shopper Walter Tarcza said.

Tarcza said laptop shopping with his son is a far cry from school supply shopping in his day. But now stores such as Best Buy are geared up for students' needs.

"We've had to prepare our stock levels to holiday level quantities," Gray said. "The amount of people and employees that will be here today ... It's almost every employee that works in my store will be serving our customers."

During the holiday period, Florida law directs that no sales tax or local option tax (also known as discretionary sales surtax) will be collected on purchases of:

  • Clothing, footwear, and certain accessories selling for $100 or less per item
  • Certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item
  • Personal computers and certain computer-related accessories on the first $750 of the sales price, when purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.

The holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 3.

This holiday does not apply to:

  • Any item of clothing selling for more than $100
  • Any school supply item selling for more than $15
  • Books that are not otherwise exempt
  • Rentals or leases of any of these items
  • Repairs or alterations of any of these items
  • Sales of clothing, school supplies, or computers and computer-related accessories in a theme park, entertainment complex, public lodging establishment, or airport.

"During this sales-tax holiday families will be able to save money on school supplies and other back-to-school items that will set students up for success in the upcoming school year," said Gov. Rick Scott. "We are proud to offer this sales-tax holiday as it will result in direct savings for Florida families as they prepare for the school year."

Youth bicycle helmets, child restraint systems and booster seats are now tax-exempt and will provide additional relief for families purchasing these child safety items.