PHILLY LAP DANCE TAX – IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN

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

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.”

New York and other cities also are trying to collect more revenue as they  recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression and they are looking  in innovative places.

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.”