Taxes on Everything

By Ian

(With all due apologies to MR.)

Denmark, the land of remarkably high tax rates, has found something else on which to impose a tax.

Denmark, with the world's highest income tax levels, wants sperm donors to pay tax on the 500 crown ($84.59) reimbursement men receive for their services.

Of course, this tax won't divert activity away from the newly-taxed practice. The diversion will simply be in the location.

"It is a special kind of work and therefore the fee cannot be compared to normal working income," Cryos said in a letter to the tax authorities, adding it risked losing donors, most of whom are students.

-- May 26, 2005 1:50 PM |

Comments

Andrew wrote:

FYI, the Danish move may not be all bad news -- http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/504.html.

-- May 26, 2005 3:22 PM ∞

Half Sigma [TypeKey Profile Page] wrote:

If all income is taxed, I don't see why an exception for sperm donation would make the least amount of sense.

-- May 28, 2005 11:40 AM ∞

Lugo wrote:

In the USA, you will pay normal income taxes (28% or whatever) on the fee the sperm bank pays you. So this Denmark tax doesn't sound different or excessive.

-- May 30, 2005 3:53 PM ∞

Ian wrote:

I'm not sure if the comments are suggesting that I said the tax itself is in some way "excessive" in taxing something that I see as somehow special. I simply thought it an amusing step in a country that already collects a massive amount of tax money from its citizens. That this was untaxed before is interesting on its own; more interesting to me is the fact that someone decided that it was worth changing the law to gather taxes from this activity. Is it really anticipated to bring in high revenues? Or just a case of normal bureaucracy creeping along to cover gaps regardless of its subject?

In addition, my intended joke was a play on the notion that taxes will, in theory, drive economic activity away from the subject of the tax in some measure to the elasticity of the thing being "demanded". In this case, I think the result could possibly be that men's "activity" won't slow down at all -- they just might not be as ready to head to the donor location. Though, Andrew's points are all well taken...

-- May 31, 2005 12:44 AM ∞

Half Sigma [TypeKey Profile Page] wrote:

"Is it really anticipated to bring in high revenues?"

Maybe they're just cleaning up the tax code by eliminating a lot of unnecessary deductions. I'm giving the Danes the benefit of the doubt on this one.

-- May 31, 2005 11:50 AM ∞

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