Sidestepping taxes

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Taxes can make hypocrites of us all. Men who exaggerate their income when they meet women will plead penury to the IRS. Families who think their home is priceless will call it a dump to the tax assessor. The “buy local” crowd will buy cigarettes off the back of a truck that just arrived from Kentucky rather than the corner gas station because the cigarette tax is lower.

But this is really too much.

http://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=36221

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra claiming to the Tax Appeals Commission and the courts that it shouldn’t have to pay sales taxes, because its concerts are not entertainment, but are primarily educational.

Personally, I consider entertainment a service, not a product, and I think that only sales of products should be subject to a sales tax. I still remember my outrage the time back in law school when the transmission on my station wagon broke down in New Jersey, and for the first time, I had to pay sales tax on the mechanic’s services.

Anyway, there are many ways to measure when taxes are too high; as soon as you get to the right of the apex on the Laffer Curve is the most obvious (and the most often disregarded by legislators). Another is when a great symphony pleads that its own music is not entertaining to avoid them.