A New York strip club can’t claim a tax exemption for entrance and performance fees on the grounds that it’s presenting “musical arts performances,” the state’s highest court ruled.
The New York Court of Appeals in Albany upheld a lower court’s ruling that Nite Moves, an adult “juice bar” in Latham, New York, didn’t prove its stage and couch dances merited a state arts exemption.
“It is not irrational for the tax tribunal to decline to extend a tax exemption to every act that declares itself a‘dance performance,’” the Court of Appeals said in a 4-3 decision.
While the state imposes a sales tax on any admission charge above 10 cents for the use of any “place of amusement,” the legislature created an exemption for “dramatic or musical arts performances,” according to the ruling.
Nite Moves, which calls itself an “upscale non-alcoholic juice bar,” had argued that lawmakers meant to give the adult-entertainment business a tax break because its performances qualify under the exemption, according to the ruling.
The club, which was required to show that its fees were admission charges for choreographed dance routines, failed to prove that performances in private rooms qualified for the exemption, the Court of Appeals said in its ruling.
Well, you can't knock them for trying. The only winners in this case are the lawyers!
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