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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Nightlife / Dancing / News The Tax That Might Put Some Seattle Clubs out of Business

Posted by on Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 11:31 AM

Club owners call it a new tax on dancing, it doesn't apply to larger venues like the Key Arena or the Gorge, but it's costing at least two small Seattle clubs hundreds of thousands of dollars:

The trouble for Neighbours began late last year when state auditors from the Department of Revenue (DOR) told the nightclub's owners that they had to pay the so-called dancing tax for the first time—in total "a six-figure-plus amount," according to Kimball—even though the club had been audited at least twice before (since opening in 1983) and the state had never mentioned the tax. Kimball says that paying the tax "won't put the club out of business—unlike many others." But regardless, he argues that the sudden, uneven application of the tax is illegal.

And since this is a sales tax on cover charges at clubs, it essentially means that in the future, either bands will be getting less of a cut at the door for gigs or ticket prices are going to rise...KEEP READING

 

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