Don't Mess With Taxes

Honduran tax officials think they are.

That Central American nation's tax collectors have instituted Operation Fiscal Love, an effort to crack down on lodging establishments, dubbed "love motels," that they believe earn more than they report.

The oversight, say officials, cheats the Honduran government out of about $40,000 a month in taxes. And they believe it comes primarily from customers who appreciate the inns' clandestine charms.

Lovers looking for discreet trysting places check into these Honduran "no-tell motel" rooms that rent for as briefly as six hours. The Associated Press reports that "scores of the hotels are located on the outskirts of the country's two largest cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, charging between $15 and $45 per room."

While the couples keep their affairs hidden, investigators say the lodgings also are hiding those steamy proceeds.

So tax investigators are stationed inside the motel lobbies, as well as outside counting the parked cars to get an idea of how many clients each motel has.

The scrutiny is, of course, just to get accurate numbers to compare with the income that the motels are, or aren't, reporting to the tax collector.

"We're not interested in whether customers go into the rooms as a twosome, threesome or foursome,'' said Honduran tax office spokesman Armando Sarmiento. ''We're only counting the cars that arrive, not the people inside them.''