I did a ton of research on this a few years ago. It turns out that there is a CT law directly on point about this. The law essentially allows a non-profit/school to choose any five days in a calendar year to not collect sales tax. They must collect sales tax every other day of the year. So, for example, if your school held a five day book fair and an unrelated big auction on a sixth day, your school might choose to have four days of the book fair and the day of the auction to be tax exempt. The law is separate from the law allowing school staff to purchase items that will be used for school purposes (not for personal purposes!) tax free throughout the year. 

Scholastic is saying that schools need to collect sales tax because they faced a big legal case against CT’s Department of Revenue Services for not having collected sales tax for years. It seems as though Scholastic learned its lesson. 

If you have any questions, call CT’s Department of Revenue Services. They were extremely helpful to me. 

Good luck!
Ariel

Ariel Wander
Public Service Librarian
Westbrook Public Library 

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 19, 2021, at 7:15 PM, Barbara Johnson <bajohnson@colchesterct.org> wrote:


Charging students sales tax at to book fair or no?
PTO has a tax exempt status, but that's if THEY buy books...right?
Scholastic rep says yes, PTO says no. I'm stuck in the middle...my first time running the fair...HELP!!
Barb

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