Source: YNOT.com

NORWAY -- The owners of the Diamond Go Go Bar in Olso have done what few have managed to do -- they fought the tax man and won.

Although Norway waives its valued-added tax (VAT) for performers, including sword-swallowers and comics, it has forced strippers and those who hire them to pay the tax, somehow concluding that erotic dance is not a form of art.

The attorneys for Diamond Go Go Bar explained that the club owners and its Terpsichorean performers disagreed. Instead, they contended that the strip tease is, indeed, an art form that requires skill and its practitioners deserve the same respect and tax breaks as other creative artists and performers.

Amazingly enough, the Norwegian court agreed.

"Striptease, in the way it is practiced in this case, is a form of dance combined with acting," the judges ruled, according to the AFP news agency.

Reuters quoted one of the plaintiff's attorneys as saying that, "One can suspect there were moral scruples behind the tax authorities' claim, since all forms of stage dance are free of value-added tax."

Fortunately for Diamond Go Go Bar, the local authorities that took it to court in order to force it to pay the 25% tax won't be able to use their "moral scruples" in order to line their governmental coffers anymore.

Instead, the court -- which sustained a May 2005 verdict -- ordered the government to pay the club's court costs.

Posted by Matt at 03:16 PM | Permalink

Source: AVN.com

CLEVELAND - Some staff members at WOIO 19 Action News believe the station hit a new low in pursuing a story this week on an after-hours strip joint at a North Randall coffee shop, according to a published report. The story led to the proprietor's arrest.

In his story, reporter Matt Stevens referred to "a woman who just arrived with a date" paying $20 each to get in and then engaging with a nude dancer in "an hourlong relationship that could easily be used as a definition of obscenity." The man and woman, their anonymity protected, were then interviewed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer about what "our undercover camera" caught.

"We found out immediately that you can get just about anything for the right price," said the woman. Including, it appears, a ready-made sweeps-week story.

The story continued by saying that what the reporter failed to tell viewers was that the woman, who works at a local legitimate strip joint, and a man were recruited and paid several hundred dollars by the station to get lewd undercover video. And they didn't sit there passively in the one-hour session, the story said.

News Director Dan Salamone said he had no qualms about paying "$300, including cocktails," for the undercover work. He said he was forced to find outsiders after he used producers for three previous visits, none of which produced usable video.

"They flat-out didn't want to go back. I ran out of people," Salamone told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The story then asks, "Shouldn't viewers have been told that the interviewees were on the payroll?"

"What was germane to me was what was going on in the establishment," he said.

Posted by Matt at 11:15 AM | Permalink

Source: YNOT

AUSTRALIA -- Condoms, lube, lotions, oils, gels, sex toys, and lingerie – they’re all tax deductible in Australia now – if you’re a sex worker.

Strippers, private dancers, and prostitutes are among the professionals who can now claim an assortment of unorthodox purchases as business expenses thanks to a decision made Friday by the Australian Taxation Office.

The items were only a few listed on the agency’s website and newly eligible as deductions from tax liability, which include dance lessons but do not include fitness club memberships or class fees.

According to the bureau’s “Tools of the Trade” section, sex workers can reasonably “claim the cost of replacing or repairing things like equipment, adult novelties, and other apparatus used in” their work.
An anonymous office employee for the taxation department explained that this was “just another one of our occupational lists that we put together to help people.”

Posted by Matt at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)