Brussels has stirred up a small storm by starting to enforce an obscure tax that charges clubs and restaurants 40c tax for each person who gets up and dances. Clubs have been hit with bills for retroactive taxes up to €2000.
Bonnefooi, a club that's gotten a large tax bill, has stuck tongue-in-cheek 'No Dancing' stickers (above) in its windows. The tax was passed in 2014 but not enforced until now. Bonnefooi's artistic director complains that he'd rather have the money to spend on performers.
The city's finance department says the tax is necessary because public dancing entails “additional expenditure, in particular in the field of safety, public peace and public order.”
Levying the tax has other problems, too: Inspectors must determine how many people are dancing. The Bonnefooi director told local press: “The tax inspector explained that the tax is based on the number of people dancing...Is throwing your arms in the air dancing?”
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