Some LA Universities owe back taxes on Student Meals

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  Back taxes owed for years of meal plans

Universities statewide may end up unexpectedly having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes on student meal plan sales taxes.

The back taxes being demanded by the state Department of Revenue would come in addition to the more than $100 million the state is expected to cut from higher education budgets in the middle of this academic year. About $109 million is being taken from colleges because of an anticipated state budget shortfall during the national recession as state revenue from oil prices dramatically decreased.

With the meal plan taxes confusion, LSU, for instance, may have to pay the Department of Revenue $750,000 for three years of back taxes that campus leaders were completely unaware of until very recently, said Donna Torres, LSU associate vice chancellor for accounting.

“I was shocked,” Torres said. “Now we have this huge tax bill we were told we weren’t going to have.”

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By JORDAN BLUM
Advocate Capitol news bureau

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  Just two weeks after higher education boards approved significant budget cuts for Louisiana's universities, unpaid back taxes on student meal plans are darkening the already dark financial outlook for higher education.

Louisiana universities have recently been informed that three years of state sales taxes on student meal plans are due to the state's Department of Revenue. And for UL, the issue could be costly for both the university and its students.

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Cody Daigle • cdaigle@theadvertiser.com • December 27, 2008