TaXXX Code

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Nudie Bars Join Sliced Bagels in Annals of Arcane New York State Tax Law

An Albany-area strip club’s attempt to contort its way around New York State tax law appear to be for naught, after the state’s highest court rejected its claim to tax exempt status yesterday.

Latham, N.Y.-based Nite Moves sought to avoid paying state taxes on door fees and private dances, arguing that its nude acts should be exempted under the same tax code that applies to Broadway shows and other choreographed dance performances.

You can credit the effort, and three of the seven justices on the State Court of Appeals did, including Associate Justice Robert S. Smith, who wrote in his dissent (H/t: WSJ) that he would be “appalled if the State were to exact from Hustler a tax that The New Yorker did not have to pay, on the ground that what appears in Hustler is insufficiently ‘cultural and artistic.’” Read More

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Nite Moves (screengrab)

Nite Moves Strip Club Seeks Same Tax Exemptions as New York City Ballet

Nite Moves, a strip club in Albany, N.Y., deserves the same treatment as the New York City Ballet in the eyes of the tax man. That’s the basic argument before New York’s highest court right now. Nearly a half-million dollars are at stake if the establishment wins the case and achieves tax-exempt parity with other fine purveyors of the terpsichorean arts. Public Radio International’s Studio 360 reports that the club has been victorious in the past: Read More