German politicians apparently have been hot on the trail of evil evaders who did not pay tax on coffee ordered over the Internet. To address this terrible crisis, the government spent 800,000 euro and tracked down 4000 dangerous criminals. Shockingly, a few cynics, including the folks at Reuters, are trying to diminish this triumph by pointing out that the government spent 30 times more than it collected:
Germany spent more than 30 times as much collecting taxes on coffee beans ordered online from abroad than it received in the tax revenues, the accounting office said on Tuesday. Some 4,000 Germans who bought coffee over the Internet from other EU countries but failed to pay the coffee tax have been charged between a few cents to 10 euros ($14.81) in taxes and fees, said Dieter Engels, head of Germany’s Federal Accounting Office. Tax collectors ended up with just 25,000 euros, way below the 800,000 euros in the costs of staff charged with collecting the payments, Engels said.
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The EU puts a high tax on roasted coffee beans to protect the German bean roasting industry. Correspondingly the is a low, or no tariff on green beans. This has the effect of preventing third-world coffee growing-countries from developing their own integrated coffee industries.
[…] Germans also imposed a tax on online coffee beans that cost €30 to enforce for every €1 […]
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[…] Spending 800,000 euro to collect 25,000 euro of tax in Germany. […]
[…] why I’ve laughed at the German tax police for spending 30 times as much money as they collected in an investigation of untaxed online sales […]
[…] to tax prostitutes, mocked the government for losing the blueprints for its new spy headquarters, mocked the government for a money-losing scheme to tax coffee, and even mocked the supposedly conservative Chancellor for wanting to impose new […]
some news in france. a new “party” (on face book) called France Paradis Fiscal advocating that France becomes one. The Elysee Palace will not be amused…
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