The university now has to charge tax on all tickets sold through its ticket office due to North Carolina’s expansion of sales tax.

In the past, colleges and universities were exempt from adding tax to admission charges, but this year, they were forced to comply. The 6.75 percent tax affects entertainment, including live events of any kind, a motion picture or film, museums, and plays. So, the tax will heavily affect large ticketed events such as homecoming.

Sam Hummel, assistant vice chancellor of finance, said meal plans were raised to cover the new tax laws.

Tuition and fees will not be affected by the entertainment tax. As a student, the fees in tuition provide students admission to some campus and sporting events.

“Previously, tickets were being charged a 3 percent “entertainment” tax. The new law repeals that tax, but implements a 6.75% sales tax,” Hummel said. “Student meals in dining facilities were exempt from sales tax.  That was repealed, and just like eating a meal in a restaurant, student meals are now subject to sales tax.”

Before the expansion of sales tax, student organizations were permitted to charge an entry fee at the door for an event without actually selling tickets. Now, people must buy a ticket from the ticket office, or the organization must have the tickets at the door and report the amount of money made at the event. The tax will be taken out of the final amount, and the remaining profit will be given back to the organization.

Personal income taxes were lowered as other taxes were raised. The only people who will benefit from this are people who earn a high salary because they get a tax break. For years, North Carolina had a three-tier system. The high-income earners would pay 7.75 percent income tax, the middle-income earners would only pay 7 percent and the low-income earner would only pay 6 percent.

Now all residents, no matter how much a household earns will pay only 5.8 percent. A few other taxes were decreased but not as drastically as the three-tier system.

Hummel explained how the changes in the tax law were a part of the North Carolina’s legislative attempt to simplify the tax code, and to make the state more competitive for business.  Corporate tax rates were lowered, and individual tax rates were simplified, but to make up for the lost revenue from these changes, other taxes were raised such as the admissions tax or exemptions from tax were repealed.

• Taylor Young, Register Reporter