Sunday, May 18, 2003

Old-fashioned tax laws of Virginia described

This Daily Press article asks how it is that while some Virginians must pay sales tax on baby food, others pay no taxes for plastic surgery. That seems like a pretty odd comparison to me, but what is true as the article explains is that the tax laws of the Commonwealth were made a little here and little there like an Amish farmhouse, and there has never been a comprehensive effort to rationalize Virginia's revenue laws.

The proponents of tax reform talk about how nowadays the sale of goods is less of the economy compared to the sale of services and information, which makes me think that some of those people think that lawyers and other like service providers ought to be collecting sales taxes, which would be a real drag.

Perhaps the tax reformers will notice this Reuters article (via Corp Law Blog and A Taxing Blog) that says: "With the German economy on the brink of recession, cash-strapped cities are resorting to slapping a 'pleasure tax' on brothels to help balance budgets."

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