ORLANDO, Fla. – What to Know:
- Florida’s Freedom Month does not return on July 1, 2026.
- Lawmakers reorganized many of the state’s tax breaks, making some permanent and moving others to different sales tax holidays.
- While some savings remain available, others – including the tax break on gym memberships – have disappeared.
Recommended Videos
If you were planning to take advantage of Florida’s Freedom Month beginning July 1, you may be wondering why you haven’t seen any advertisements.
The answer is simple Florida’s Freedom Month is no more.
For several years, Florida shoppers grew accustomed to seeing a summer sales tax holiday covering everything from camping gear and museum admissions to concert tickets and gym memberships. The holiday evolved rapidly: beginning as Freedom Week in 2021 before expanding into Freedom Summer in 2023 and then becoming Freedom Month in 2024.
But in 2025, lawmakers rewrote Florida’s approach to sales tax holidays.
Instead of renewing Freedom Month, legislators reorganized many of its tax exemptions, making some permanent, moving others into different tax holidays, and allowing a handful of exemptions to expire.
The result: many of the savings Floridians once expected to find in July still exist – but not necessarily in the same form.
Where Did the Savings Go?
For example, a lot of disaster preparedness supplies are now permanently exempt from Florida sales tax year-round. That means shoppers no longer have to wait for a designated holiday before purchasing qualifying hurricane supplies (that holiday usually ran alongside the beginning of hurricane season starting June 1).
Likewise, many outdoor recreation items that once qualified during Freedom Month – including tents, fishing rods, sleeping bags, camping stoves and tackle boxes – have been moved into Florida’s Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday, which now runs from Sep. 1 through Dec. 31.
Some admissions also became permanently exempt from sales tax, including admission to Florida State Parks and many other qualifying entry fees that previously fell under Freedom Month.
But not every benefit survived the transition: one notable casualty was the temporary sales tax exemption for gym memberships. Unlike several other Freedom Month incentives, that tax break was not made permanent or moved into another holiday.
Why the change?
Under HB 7031, lawmakers converted many items that had previously been exempt only during temporary sales tax holidays into permanent, year-round sales tax exemptions. The legislation also made Florida’s Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday permanent while moving many outdoor recreation items into the Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday.
The overhaul also produced some interesting quirks – for example, flashlights and camping lanterns, once associated with Florida’s Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday, are now part of the Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday. They didn’t get the full year tax free status but will be tax free from September 1 through December 31.
Nevertheless, for consumers, the overhaul means there is less of a need to wait for a particular week – or even a particular month – to make certain purchases. But at the same time, new rules also mean that shoppers can no longer assume a familiar tax holiday will return simply because it appeared on the calendar in previous years.
The Lists
So where do we stand on items?
Among the disaster preparedness items now permanently exempt from Florida sales tax are:
- Batteries
- Bicycle helmets
- Carbon monoxide alarms
- Fire extinguishers
- Generators
- Ground anchor systems (and tie-down kits)
- Insect repellent
- Life jackets
- Portable gas cans
- Smoke detectors
- Sunscreen
- Waterproof Tarps
Some products that qualified during previous Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holidays are no longer permanently exempt. These include:
- Coolers
- Flashlights and lanterns
- Portable power banks
- Reusable ice packs
Many items that were previously eligible during Freedom Month are now tax free under Florida’s Hunting, Fishing, and Camping Sales Tax Holiday running this year from September 1 through December 31 under [Some%20products,%20however,%20that%20were%20eligible%20during%20previous%20disaster%20preparedness%20holidays%20did%20not%20make%20the%20transition.]Florida’s Hunting, Fishing, and Camping Sales Tax Holiday:
Hunting Supplies:
- Ammunition
- Firearms
- Bows
- Crossbows
- Some bow and crossbow accessories
- Some firearm accessories
Camping & Fishing Supplies:
- $5 or less: Individual bait and fishing tackle
- $10 or less: Multiple items of bait and fishing tackle
- $30 or less: Tackle boxes, flashlights, and lanterns
- $50 or less: Camping stoves, collapsible camping chairs, portable hammocks, and sleeping bags
- $75 or less: Rods and reels if sold individually
- $200 or less: Tents
As for the state’s Back to School Tax Free Holiday, it runs this year from July 20 through August 20:
- $30 or less: Learning aids and jigsaw puzzles
- $50 or less: Most school supplies
- $100 or less: Clothing, footwear, and accessories
- $1,500 or less: Computers and related accessories (non-commercial use)
So – if you were expecting Freedom Month to begin on July 1, you’re not alone. The holiday, however, is gone.
But many of its tax savings weren’t eliminated – they were either made permanent, moved to different sales tax holidays, or, in a handful of cases, discontinued altogether.
For shoppers, the lesson is simple: before delaying a purchase in hopes of an upcoming tax holiday, it’s worth checking whether that exemption still exists – or whether it’s already available year-round.