# UN eyes tax on football tickets for humanitarian aid

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-eyes-tax-on-football-tickets-for-humanitarian-aid/743455>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 17, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-eyes-tax-on-football-tickets-for-humanitarian-aid/743455 "2016-01-17T23:37:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-eyes-tax-on-football-tickets-for-humanitarian-aid/743455/1 "2016-01-17T23:37:11Z")

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What do you think of an “entertainment” tax administered by the UN to pay for humanitarian aid?

[http://news.yahoo.com/un-eyes-tax-football-tickets-pay-humanitarian-aid-103738646.html](http://news.yahoo.com/un-eyes-tax-football-tickets-pay-humanitarian-aid-103738646.html)

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-eyes-tax-on-football-tickets-for-humanitarian-aid/743455/2 "2016-01-18T02:41:25Z")

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Lead balloon. At least in the states.

First off, the UN can’t tax anything. Yes, they’re asking for a voluntary tax adoption by member states on certain entertainment options, but it’s not the UN itself doing the taxing.

The US is tax-phobic and UN-phobic enough that any attempt by congress to impose such a tax wouldn’t pass the giggle - or even the snort derisively - test.

The only way I could see it occurring here is if the UN asked sports teams to include a surcharge on their tickets that could be earmarked for such humanitarian efforts and which the teams could then write off as charitable contributions.

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**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-eyes-tax-on-football-tickets-for-humanitarian-aid/743455/3 "2016-01-18T14:17:32Z")

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I think they’re talking about “football” as in soccer, not American football. They’re also looking to try to tap into the Muslim _zakat_, or mandatory almsgiving.

Basically, the UN is looking to sponge up money wherever and however they can. Maybe if they stopped diverting so much money into their various hookers & blow accounts, they’d have more left over to feed the starving war refugees.

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-eyes-tax-on-football-tickets-for-humanitarian-aid/743455/4 "2016-01-18T14:25:50Z")

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> [@Diceman](#):
>
> I think they’re talking about “football” as in soccer, not American football.

And considering FIFA’s level of corruption, _ **they** _ could easily make an institutional donation that would make a serious difference in the humanitarian aid budget without losing any of their above-the-table budget.