Tax-free textbooks, dining plans for students

Students can buy textbooks tax free from the FIU bookstore until June 30, 2016.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

FIU students will have some extra cash in their wallets after they purchase textbooks and meal plans this semester.

This fall, for the first time, both will be exempt from the sales tax as part of a $428.9 million tax-cut bill passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott over the summer.

The yearlong sales tax holiday went into effect on July 1 runs through June 30, 2016, meaning students will be able to save 7 percent, which is the sales tax rate in Miami-Dade County, off their textbooks and meal plans until next summer. Florida Senate staff projects students will save about $60 a year on textbooks, if the tax holiday continues beyond next year.

The tax exemption only applies for textbooks purchased through campus-run bookstores. FIU students can take advantage of the exemption by purchasing their textbooks at the Barnes & Noble at FIU bookstores at MMC or BBC, or online at the bookstore’s website. The exemption also applies to the lease of textbooks, as long as the term of the lease is within the effective period of the exemption.

During the 2015 Special Legislative Session, the Florida legislature also made clarifications to the sales tax exemption given to students who purchase prepaid college meal plans. For FIU students to qualify for the exemption, the meal plan must be purchased in advance of use or purchased using financial aid once it has been disbursed and be purchased directly from FIU.

The meal plan must also be for a defined number of meals per week, month, year or term; a set monetary amount; or an unlimited number of meals for a defined number of days. Every FIU dining plan saves students a minimum of 10 percent and with the sales tax exemption added, students with a dining plan will now be saving at least 17 percent off every meal purchased on campus.

FIU dining plans can be viewed and purchased at shop.FIU.edu or at the Panther Dining Services website.