BATON ROUGE — This week's sales tax holiday is a chance for people to save a little money by not paying a 4-cent sales tax, but it won't have a noticeable impact on state revenue.

Treasurer John Kennedy and Greg Albrecht of the Legislative Fiscal Office said the anticipated drop of $3.7 million from qualifying sales Friday and Saturday won't be noticed, considering the amount of sales tax the state collects on other days.

"This is one of the few instances when people get to keep some of their money," Kennedy said. "We collect almost $3 billion a year in sales taxes. To allow people to keep $3.7 million seems very fair to me."

Albrecht said the minor revenue loss would have no impact on the budget and is not considered when estimating revenues for the year.

Louisiana collected almost $250 million in sales taxes last August, even with a tax holiday, a Department of Revenue report shows. Sales tax collections were down for the year at $2.465 billion, about $400 million less than previous years.

The original legislation creating the August tax holiday — one of three tax-free weekends offered by the state — estimated the cost at $6 million.

Department of Revenue representative Byron Henderson said the $3.7 million estimate for this year is "based on actual data from collections" in previous years.

If you're heading out to take advantage of this weekend's state sales tax holiday, there are five basic things to remember.

• It's Friday and Saturday, not Sunday.
• It's only state sales tax, not local tax — unless a store decides to give further discounts that cover local taxes.
• The types of things that can be purchased have some limits — if it has a motor, you can eat or drink it or you rent it, you have to pay the tax.
• The tax deferral applies to purchases costing $2,500 or less.
• Save your receipts for any school supplies, school uniforms, textbooks or supplemental materials you purchase for an elementary, middle or high school student, including those who are home-schooled. Those expenses — up to $5,000 — are eligible for deductions when you file next year's income tax statements.

"As hard-working parents and guardians are shopping for school supplies, books, uniforms and any other materials for the quickly approaching school year, it is very important that they keep record of their purchases so that they can receive the tax deductions they deserve," said Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, author of the August sales tax holiday legislation and laws granting income tax deductions for the purchase of school supplies and private school tuition — up to $5,000 a child.

Like most things, though, there's a catch. The total amount of the deduction may not exceed the taxpayer's total taxable income and to claim any of the income tax deductions, you must be able to claim the student as a dependent on your Louisiana Individual Income Tax Return.

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