Read UC's Lips: No Group Taxes

Undergraduate Council (UC) representatives met with student group members on Thursday to discuss the impact of the College’s unpopular 5 percent tax on groups’ gift accounts instated this year.

The University-implemented tax affects all tax-deductible donations to Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) organizations. By the fiscal year 2009, the tax will increase to 15 percent.

At the meeting, many student leaders complained that they received an e-mail in August notifying them that the tax would immediately take effect, forcing some to freeze their groups’ accounts or pay for expenses out of pocket.

Student group leaders said their chief concern was how the tax would affect their fundraising methods.

Mountaineering Club Treasurer Kevin M. Bache ’07 said that their new climbing wall in Lowell House was funded by alumni donations, which would be taxed under the College’s new plan.

“[The tax] slows down our fundraising ability,” Bache said.

FAS spokesman Robert Mitchell wrote in an e-mail that there is help available for students who are concerned about the tax.

“Students can petition the College for reimbursement if a particular assessment poses a hardship,” Mitchell wrote.

According to the president of the Radcliffe Choral Society, Lauren E. Roller ’07, certain groups will not be directly hurt by the tax.

“Larger and older groups will not be affected the same way.” Roller said. “We have endowments and this doesn’t apply to endowments.”

Some members said they would lobby alumni donors and faculty members to fight the tax.

The chair of the UC’s Student Affairs Committee, Ryan A. Petersen ’08, said that UC representatives planned to meet with Interim Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles today to discuss the matter.

—Staff writer Rachel Banks can be reached at banks@fas.harvard.edu.