Sales Tax Holiday

RICHMOND, Va. (WUSA/AP) -- If you're in need of school supplies this weekend may be the time to shop.

"If it's free, it's for me!" joked Delonte Nixon who was shopping for a lap top for college.

Virginia's fourth back-to-school sales tax holiday began Friday and runs through Sunday.

Shoppers at retail stores statewide will be exempt from the 5 percent sales tax on school supplies priced up to $20 per item and clothes and shoes priced up to $100.

Stores also can choose to exempt other items and pay the taxes themselves. Chris Allen was out buying cat food when he realized he could save the five percent sales tax on a new 47 inch high definition TV at Best Buy. So he bought it. He saved about $30.

The taxation department expects shoppers to save $4 million during the period.

However, there are no back-to-school sales tax holidays in the District or Maryland.

Safiyyah Woods from D.C. said, "We wanted to go to a D.C. store, but since they gave up the holiday, we came to Alexandria." I saved about $20.