Now he’ll need $21.
If Detroit only had a brilliant mayor like Michael Nutter, they certainly wouldn’t be bankrupt. When the going gets rough and you’ve run out of money, create a new tax out of thin air. Nutter has already jacked up taxes on cigarettes and soda, which impact the poor the most. Now he wants to tax you for having a trollop sit on your lap. I bet Nutter will have 10,000 government union drones applying for the 50 lap dance enforcement specialist jobs that will be created. Maybe they can add a blowjob tax (an extra 5% if they swallow), a handjob tax, an anal tax, and a premature ejaculation tax. Nutter is cumming for your money. If you need any more proof of a city in a downward spiral, this is it. Do it for the chilrun.
This guy should get a tax refund.
Lap dance in West Philly
Lap dances to be taxed to help Philadelphia school revenues
- Date
Romy Varghese
A man in a strip club Photo: Michael Rayner
Philadelphia: It’s one thing to watch a scantily clad woman twirl around poles. It’s another, says Philadelphia, to pay her to undulate over your lap.
That’s the stance being taken with at least two strip clubs, Club Risque and Cheerleaders: The city, which taxes the establishments’ entrance fees, is trying to collect levies on lap dances as well.
It’s unclear how much the city would reap from collecting lap-dance levies from every club, of which there are dozens.
The city is pressing its case as it hires a revenue collection officer and goes after delinquent property tax, which is fifth highest among US cities surveyed last month by Pew Charitable Trusts. Mayor Michael Nutter has pledged an extra $US28 million from improved collections to the school district, which has a $US304 million deficit.
“It’s smart business” to apply the tax code to erotic dancing, said Michael Gillen, director of the tax accounting group at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia. “They have to be foolish not to expand their reach.”
The adult-entertainment industry has waged and lost several taxation battles. New York in October rejected a bid by the strip club Nite Moves to get a break on the grounds that it provided musical art performances. The Texas Supreme Court three years ago upheld a per-customer tax in nude businesses that serve alcohol.
At issue in Philadelphia is a 5 percent tax that applies to any amusement in the city, including concerts, movies and strip- club entry fees. The city collected $US21.9 million in those taxes in the fiscal year that ended in July 2012, documents show.
Now the city says lap dances are distinct amusements and should be taxed, according to George Bochetto, a Philadelphia lawyer challenging the city’s tax assessment on behalf of the two clubs.
Philadelphia sent a $US486,483 bill covering lap dances performed at Cheerleaders and charged Club Risque $US320,540, according to documents provided by Mr Bochetto. The city is seeking principal, interest and penalties over three years.
It’s unclear how much the city would reap from collecting lap-dance levies from every club, of which there are dozens.
At Club Risque, which is advertising a Christmas in July party next week featuring “naughty elves,” lap dances start at $US20 and can cost $US200 in a semi-private area. The club already pays the amusement tax on entry fees as high as $US15, depending on the day and time, according to the documents.
Mr Bochetto says the city’s approach is unfair, arguing that a personal performance doesn’t constitute a separate amusement.
Mr Bochetto said he will press his clients’ appeal in front of a city tax board next week and said he’ll go to court if needed. In papers filed with the city, he said dancers pay their own taxes and provide their own costumes and props. In exchange for security, the performers give the businesses a percentage of their earnings at the end of each shift.
“The city started saying, ‘OK, we need more money, and here, maybe, is a way we can scare up some more money without having to raise anybody’s taxes,’ ” Mr Bochetto said.
Mark McDonald, a spokesman for Mr Nutter, declined to comment on how many strip clubs the city is trying to tax for lap dances or on the bills for Cheerleaders and Club Risque.
The city and school district are owed $US515.4 million in delinquent taxes and penalties, according to a report last month from the Pew Charitable Trusts, a Philadelphia-based research and public policy group. Pew surveyed the nation’s most populous metropolitan areas and six others that, like Philadelphia, have poverty rates of more than 25 percent.
Outside, John Adams, 33, of Philadelphia, a former manager at another strip club in the city, said applying the fees is a “horrible” idea.
“It’s going to be impossible to regulate,” Mr Adams said, adding that prices can vary widely. “Sometimes it’s negotiated. Sometimes a woman just sits on your lap.”