Súludans án virðisaukaskatts. Stéttin stendur höllum fæti á Íslandi í samanburði við nágrannalöndin!

Þegar ég heimsótti vefsíður Times, nú sem oftar vakti frétt um Norska súludansstaði nokkra athygli mína.  Þarlendir dómsstólar hafa víst nýverið úrskurðað að súludans skuli njóta skattfríðinda til jafns við aðrar listgreinar.

Það má því líklega svo notaður sé vinsæll "frasi", segja að súludansarar njóti ekki sömu stöðu og "kollegar" þeirra í nágrannalöndunum.  Nú vantar bara ábyrga frétta og stjórnmálamenn til að taka málið upp.

Eða eins og segir í fréttinni:

"Striptease, the tantalising dance pioneered by Salome in the Old Testament, is an art form that ranks with opera and ballet, according to a Norwegian court. As a result, strip clubs will be freed from paying the country’s hefty 25 per cent VAT.

The ruling has been a triumph for the young women of the Diamond GoGo Bar in Oslo who had complained that they were being disadvantaged compared to tax-free sword swallowers and stand-up comics.

The last straw came when they heard that tickets for the Chippendales, a male strip act, were exempt from Value Added Tax because of their artistic merit. The Norwegian Council for the Equality of the Sexes took up the strippers’ cause."

"The case has been bouncing back and forth between the courts after a district court ruled in favour of the strip club in May 2005. The state of Norway appealed to the High Court - and this week lost again.

"Striptease, in the way it is practised in this case, is a form of dance combined with acting," said the judges who ruled on the matter, thereby comparing the act to other stage performances which are exempt from VAT.

The Norwegian state is considering whether to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

It was not clear whether the three judges had conducted field research before reaching their verdict. Certainly they made a clear distinction between "banal and vulgar" striptease - in which there is physical contact between dancers and the audience - and artistic dance. "

Fréttina má finna hér.