During the 2025 Legislative Session, the Alabama House of Representatives passed House Bill 176, a bill that would exempt optical aids, including eyeglasses and contact lenses, from Alabama sales tax. However, HB176 ultimately failed to pass through the Senate before the end of the session, preventing it from becoming law.

Now, HB176’s sponsor, state Representative Mark Shirey, R-Mobile, has prefiled a new version of the bill with the hopes of passing it into law in 2026.

Nearly identical to HB176, Shirey’s House Bill 15 would strike the language from the Alabama sales tax code that provides for the collection of state sales tax on the sale of “ophthalmic materials, including lenses, frames, eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other therapeutic optic devices.” Instead, the gross proceeds of

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