Schools Fight Meal Tax on Students

Representatives of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts (AICUM) will meet today with state officials in an effort to postpone the effective date of a law levying an 8 per cent tax on student meals served by the institutions.

The state authorized the collection of the tax--which adds $87.20 to the Harvard board fee for 1975-76--beginning September 1.

However, James A. True, a lobbyist for the AICUM, said yesterday that the association will argue to Owen Clarke, commissioner of taxation and corporation, that the schools were not informed of the tax enough ahead of time.

True said that the association has two hopes of avoiding the annual taxation, which will be borne by students at a cost of from $50 to $90 per student per year. One chance is that Clark will award the schools a postponement of the tax until next semester.

The other hope is that the state legislature will exempt school food services from the state meal tax, a status that the institutions enjoyed until this year.

If Clark denies postponement of the tax, True said, the AICUM may consider suing the state.

The Harvard board plan rose in cost from $1000 to $1090 over the last year, and the additional $87 tax will be added to the October term bill.

Michael F Brewer, assistant to the vice president for government and community affairs at Harvard, said terday that the University has allowed AICUM and its lobbyists to represent Harvard opposition to the tax.

We've been trying to work with other institutions on this," Hale Champion, vice president for financial affairs, said last night.

The commissioner of taxation and corporation ruled in spring 1974 that educational institutions should pay the meal tax on all board programs in which the average cost of a meal is over $1.

True said yesterday that the state legislature will almost definitely defeat a bill now on the floor to exempt schools from the meal tax, and that AICUM will attempt to buy time with a postponement.

Student meals under a board plan are not the same as the restaurant purchased meals for which the tax was designed, True said. He said that students are a "captive" group, who buy with their board contracts the same type of board that they might get at home, or living on their own.