Sitka shoppers will pay no city sales tax Nov. 27 and 28, the days after Thanksgiving

Sitka shoppers will pay no city sales tax on Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28, the two days after Thanksgiving.

The City and Borough of Sitka Assembly approved the tax-free days Sept. 8, according to a city announcement posted Tuesday and the Assembly's Sept. 8 minutes. The vote was 6-0, with Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz recused.

The Assembly decides this every year. City code says the Assembly must consider at its first September meeting whether to authorize the sales-tax-free days that have historically followed Thanksgiving, and a city memo says the two days right after the holiday have usually been chosen.

Finance Director Brooke Volschenk estimated the days would cost the city $32,500 in sales tax on at least $650,000 in tax-free local sales. Her memo for last year's days estimated at least $700,000 in tax-free sales and a cost of $35,000.

Fuel, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, marijuana and sales in which the buyer pays the seller over time stay taxed.

The city must notify the Alaska Remote Sellers Sales Tax Commission so the exemption applies to online sellers too, though Volschenk wrote that those sellers "do not typically have the technical ability" to apply it.

Shoppers would otherwise pay the winter rate of 5%, which runs Oct. 1 through March 31. Sitka's rate dropped from 6% to 5% on Oct. 1, Alaska News reported Sept. 15.