In what must be a blow to businessmen and terpsichoreans everywhere, the New York high court has ruled that lap dancesdo not contribute to the community in the same way as ballet and thus are taxable under state laws. It was a close decision so perhaps the management and artists at Nite Moves can appeal to the SCOTUS.
But I’m sure ballet is exempt from taxes because, like in Australia, it doesn’t actually make any profit but subsists on grants, endowments and public funding. Seems to be the same deal with several other art forms that meet with the approval of the people who control the purse strings.
Clearly they have never had a good lap dance.
This is disappointing to hear as I’ve already purchased a subscription for the whole season. I was also looking forward to seeing my name in the program under “VIP Circle Members.”
Clarence Thomas has got to be in the bag for them.
Apart from how we’d love to see how Thomas ruled on this, SCOTUS already declined to take a Texas case on strip club taxes so as this was also a state tax case in state court, I don’t see anything different happen. (Texas has what has been called a “Pole Tax” where you pay a $5 surtax at the door on top of any cover charge)
The deal with NY is that there is a sales tax exception for “The Arts” that venues that offer mere “amusement” do not enjoy.
Besides the NY statute needing some desperate CPI updating (when the Hell was the last time admission to anything in that state was ten cents) I’m now wondering if this means not only admission but also each individual lap dance will be taxed, with the clubs having to withhold it off of each dancer’s share of her take at the end of the shift. Most exotic dancers in the US are legally “contractors” who pay the club to work there, either with an upfront fee or a share of every dollar moved in dances and drinks or a combination thereof; in some NY City clubs they start the night hundreds of dollars in the red and don’t make anything until they’ve moved that much in sales.
Naked, up-close ballet should solve this little conundrum.
Kidding aside, this was a reasonable decision. Lap dancing is not being singled out. The decision noted that things like baseball games, amusement parks, and ice skating shows pay the tax. So the law’s definition of art seems to exclude performances that would better be qualified as forms of entertainment.
It may not be an art, but it’s certainly a skill; where are the unions in all this? 
Do court rulings extend to my description to my wife of my activities activities?
art is the skilled practiced efforts of a person to impress, expand and develop the appreciation of true beauty on the part of the viewer.
art is in the pants of the beholder.
Many lap dancers have [del]endowments[/del] are well endowed.
They’re funded by donations
Now, how to turn this into a church…