Is Your Text Now Taxable?

You may not have to pay Massachusetts' new three per cent sales tax on books you need for your courses -- if the Commonwealth can figure out by April 1 how to tell the books you need from the books you don't.

The sales tax bill, passed by the Legislature March 2, says that "instructional materials" are exempt from taxation. But a survey of Square bookstores yesterday revealed that the Commonwealth has not yet explained which books will be considered "instructional." A Massachusetts Tax Commission official confirmed yesterday that the State hasn't come up with a definition.

"We want to live within the law but I don't see how we're going to be able to do it," John G. Morrill, Coop manager, said yesterday. "I wish that they would tax all the books or none of them," he added.

Morrill speculated that students buying books may have to identify themselves and prove that they need the books for courses, in order to avoid the three percent tax. He wondered if a book sold at a college book store and "the local cigar store" would be exempt from taxation at both places.

Others Confused

Other bookstore owners were also confused. Ellsworth R. Young, Phillips Book store proprietor, said yesterday that some books would be hard to classify, such as Robert Glover's The Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding. This book, originally written for "titillation" was later assigned to students in a Divinity School course, Young said.

An official at the Harvard University Press said "no one here is supposed to say anything until the situation gets clarified." He added, "If everybody sits tight, everything will be all right."