Five funny tax laws

I hesitated to write this post because it’s foreseeable that anti-taxers will take the below revenue-enhancers as further evidence of the insatiability of the state.  I think they’re just interesting reflections of the societies in which they operate.

1. Taxing Mooncakes in China – Mooncake is a stuffed pastry usually given at the Mid-Autumn Festival (or when needing to grease a bureaucrat’s wheels).  Because of their popularity, the tax raised 30 billion yuan (about $4.2 billion) in revenue in one year.

2. Webcam Stripper Tax – Swedish authorities had trouble identifying the independent workers, that is until they “investigated the sites manually.” (I presume the SEC was just looking for fraud at those porn sites.) Reflecting the niceness that one sees in America’s Minnesotans, the Swedish man in charge of finding these women says, “They are young girls, we can see from the photos.  We think that perhaps they are not well informed about the rules.”

3. Artistic Exemption – An even better version than in Mexico.  In Ireland, artists earning less than 250,000 Euros are exempt from paying income tax.  The law originally did not have an income limit, but then U2 started earning a ton of money.

4. World Cup Tax Exemption – Apparently American sports aren’t the only ones that get to shirk their civic duties.  To win the 2010 World Cup bid, South Africa had to create tax bubles around World Cup sites.  Any income earned from goods sold in those sites is exempt from taxation.

5. Tax free witches – In the Netherlands, a student of the Heksehoeve (means Witch Farmhouse) school convinced the state to let her write-off her tuition at the school because it was used to extend her professional knowledge.