Need a new dishwasher? Craving a new 50-inch wall mounted LCD flat screen TV?

If so, whip out your pocketbooks Aug. 1 and 2. Those items and others under $2,500 will be exempt from a 4 percent statewide sales tax.

Louisiana is enacting its annual two-day sales tax holiday beginning at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1, and concluding at midnight on Saturday, Aug. 2. Almost all Louisiana dealers are expected to participate, except for those who sell meals, including to-go orders, or vehicles that must be licensed or titled. Also not included are the purchases of taxable services such as hotel occupancy, amusement, recreational and athletic admissions, repairs to tangible personal property, laundry cleaning, pressing and dyeing services, vehicle parking, the furnishing of cold storage space, printing services and telecommunication services such as cell phones and cable bills. The tax break counts only toward the state’s portion of sales taxes, or 4 percent, meaning $100 or so could be lifted from the first $2,500 of a purchase. Shoppers are still required to pay other sales taxes collected for local municipalities, school districts, police department and other taxing agencies.

Last year, state Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, authored the bill approved 34-0 and signed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco to forgo the sales tax collections and spur statewide spending on an annual basis. Now the sales tax free holidays are the first consecutive Friday and Saturday of August each year.

After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, state lawmakers enacted a similar, three-day tax holiday in December 2005, but it was a one-time tax break. With the state bringing in record amounts of income, lawmakers said the time was right to make the tax-free shopping an annual event.

This year, the Department of Revenue declined to offer estimates of lost tax revenue.

“What you are trying to do is count something that is not there,” Byron Henderson, DOR press secretary, said. “It’s exceeding difficult to make those kinds of predictions.”

To qualify for the sales tax exemption, the purchase must meet one of the following criteria:

• Items are purchased during the holiday period.

• The customer places property on layaway during the holiday period.

• The customer purchases property that was previously placed on layaway during the holiday period.

• The customer places an order for immediate delivery during the holiday period, even if delivery is delayed until after the holiday period, provided that the customer has not requested delayed shipment.