Court: Lap dances aren't tax-exempt

Albany Times Union ^ | June 10, 2011 | CAROL DEMARE

[Fitzy_888]

Associate Justice John C. Egan Jr. wrote a nine-page ruling that cited numerous elements of tax case law and went into exhaustive detail defining aspects such as dramatic or musical arts, choreography and whether Nite Moves qualified as a "place of amusement."

"Hence, the issue distills to whether the club's admission and private dance fees constitute charges for admission to a 'live dramatic, choreographic or musical performance,'" he wrote.

The club sought expert testimony from a cultural anthropologist who researched the field of exotic dance, visited the club and reviewed the dances depicted on the Nite Moves DVD. She offered an opinion that "the presentations at Nite Moves are unequivocally live dramatic choreographic performances."

The unnamed expert further concluded that the private dances performed at the club, such as lap dances, involved "similar kinds of movements" as those portrayed by the dancers on stage and therefore also "qualified as choreographed performances."

The five-member court disagreed. The record from the Tax Tribunal hearing showed the club's dancers were not required to have formal training and relied on videos or suggestions from other dancers "to learn their craft."

The appellate court found no merit to the club's argument, and lacked sufficient proof to sustain a tax exemption. The dances offered at the club "did not constitute 'live dramatic or musical arts performances' within the meaning of the statute," the court held.

[Fitzy_888]

The courts have closed the tax loop holes in the garter belt.

[max americana]

>The club sought expert testimony from a cultural anthropologist who researched the field of exotic dance, visited the club and reviewed the dances depicted on the Nite Moves DVD<

WTF is a “cultural anthropologist”?

[rhombus]

WTF is a “cultural anthropologist”?

Someone usually paid by the Gov or Gov subsidized student loans to pontificate on pet theories at expensive hotel conferences set up for the sole purpose of enhancing a curriculum vitae.

[NonValueAdded]

(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I’ll tax your feet.

[antiRepublicrat]

a cultural anthropologist who researched the field of exotic dance, visited the club and reviewed the dances depicted on the Nite Moves DVD

This article leaves only one question: How does one obtain such employment?

[UCANSEE2]

WTF is a “cultural anthropologist”?

(Someone usually paid by the Gov or Gov subsidized student loans to pontificate on pet theories at expensive hotel conferences set up for the sole purpose of enhancing a curriculum vitae.)

Anthony Weiner was a cultural anthropologist. So was DSK (Frenchie Prez Candidate).

[DaveyB]

...the Tax Tribunal hearing showed the club's dancers were not required to have formal training and relied on videos or suggestions from other dancers "to learn their craft."

So any vocation that has no formal training and where the learning is acquired from books, videos or suggestions by others in the field somehow constitutes a sham profession? Hello that describes Resident Obama and most of congress. The reasoning is beyond foolish. Piss Ch-st is art, but lap dancing is not... how much formal training does it take to take pictures of bull whip stuck up your rear?

Because the court has allowed them to operate in spite of the resultant dissolution of character and moral decay (the strip club not congress), they ought to apply equal treatment of tax law. But then they are still stuck on stupid.

[circlecity]

"WTF is a “cultural anthropologist”?

Yet another pseudo-academic discipline with absolutely no social utility.

[Buckeye McFrog]

“Well, that would certainly make Chartered Accountancy a much more interesting profession”.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus, 1969

[hinckley buzzard]

I wonder when the IRS will inquire with Tyrell Pryor about the thousands of dollars' worth of memorabilia he sold out of the Ohio State equipment room.