JEWELERS SEEK CHANGES IN NEW TAX LAW

As with most major new tax laws, the tax package that passed Congress last October includes at least one ambiguity. It relates to the 10 percent luxury tax on jewelry items selling for the first time at a price above $10,000. The tax applies not only to newly produced items but to custom fabrications using the customer's materials, as well.

Jewelers want that changed to exclude from the tax those jewelry modifications that utilize the customer's own materials in the fabrication of a ``new '' item, provided the value of the item produced - a remounted diamond, for example - is no more than 125 percent of the fair market value of customer-supplied materials.