On top of hard-hitting economic times and budget cuts, the University is suddenly liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes owed to the Louisiana Department of Revenue.The University owes three years in meal plan sales taxes adding up to $724,000, stemming from payment confusion since August 1988.”It’s one of those things that slipped through the cracks,” said Donna Torres, associate vice chancellor for Accounting and Financial Services. For years, meal plans in education and medical facilities were exempt from state sales tax. But University officials were unaware when the Legislature suspended the exemption, Torres said.”One section provides the exemption, and then another section negates it,” she said. “But it was suspended from August 1988 through June 2009, so we should have charged the sales tax.”The Department of Revenue sent a ruling to the LSU System’s office advising the University to charge a 4 percent sales tax on meal plans through June 30. But only a 1 percent sales tax will exist starting July 1.”We received a letter that [the revenue department] will allow us to not begin collecting the tax until the spring of 2009,” Torres said. “LSU was ready to charge the tax in the fall 2008 semester.”But the revenue department rescinded its letter Nov. 25, making the University liable for three years of back taxes. The University will draw money from its agenda fund and the sales tax was included in students’ spring fee bills, Torres said. The tax will cost students an average $37 more for meal plans this semester. But other universities statewide are facing the same problem.Wayne Theriot, associate vice chancellor for Administrative Services at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said the financial responsibility could fall on the universities’ food providers.”We’re not the ones providing the service,” he said. “The contractor will have to charge the students for that sales tax.”But Torres said the University’s food provider, Chartwells, is not responsible for the sales tax since they do not bill the students.—-Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]