Don't Mess With Taxes

You've got to give it to Alabama lawmakers. They don't mess around when they talk about sin taxes.

Oh sure, the Alabama House Ways and Means Committee OK'ed a 25-cent-per-pack cigarette tax hike.

But nicotine addiction is just a minor sin. And that tax was just a preview.

The state's tax-writing committee last week also approved a 40 percent excise tax on pornographic materials.

Alabama isn't censoring adult material, but some lawmaker do want to tax it heavily to help close the state's budget shortfall.

You read right. Forty. 4-0. The size of the proposed tax and its titillating target earn 40 percent this week's By the Numbers honor.

A vice big enough for budget gap? The so-called porn tax is the latest effort by Alabama lawmakers, now meeting in their second special session of the year, to close a projected $250 million general fund budget gap.

Some lawmakers believe there are enough folks in this stretch of America's Bible Belt with sexual vices to make a monetary difference, although there is no estimate of projected revenue yet.

Defining taxable porn: State Rep. Jack Williams is sponsor of H.R. 39, which officially calls for a 40 percent excise tax on "receipts from the sale of sexually oriented materials."

So what exactly classifies as sexually oriented material? H.R. 39 says it is:

Any book, magazine, newspaper, printed or written matter, writing, description, picture, drawing, animation, photograph, motion picture, film, video tape, pictorial presentation, depiction, image, electrical or electronic reproduction, broadcast, transmission, video download, telephone communication, sound recording, article, device, equipment, matter, oral communication, depicting breast or genital nudity or sexual conduct.

The bill also elaborates on particular sex depictions and acts so that everyone knows, a la the famous Supreme Court definition, exactly what constitutes pornography without having to see it.

I'll let you check out the bill's language yourself. I wouldn't want the ol' blog's recounting to fall into taxable territory.

Different tax treatment for different media: Explicit legislative language aside, the bill's less lewd language raises some administrative questions.

Would the phrase citing depictions of nudity as taxable acts mean that moviegoers attending some R-rated movies would have to pay 40 percent more for their Cineplex tickets?

No. The bill specifically exempts motion pictures rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.

That means that the book "Fifty Shades of Grey," for example, probably will face the added tax, while the R-rated won't. That differentiation could add a new meaning in Alabama to the old phrase, "I'll just wait for the movie."

There is not, however, any specific exclusion for artwork, although drawings and pictorial presentations are cited as potential distribution avenues for porn. Many major paintings display bared breasts.

Plus, museum exhibits also often offer books of the shows. Would the galleries and their shops face the "Fifty Shades" treatment?

Neither is there any mention of premium cable programming that offers specific adult entertainment or flashes of it in more general audience shows.

If the bill progresses, look for this and other issues to be raised.

Other taxes, too: And while 40 percent is a lot, it's not the only tax that adult products will face.

The porn excise tax will be in addition to state, city and county sales taxes that already are in place.

Of course, H.R. 39 is early in the legislative process. The porn tax must clear the full Alabama House, the state Senate and be signed into law by the governor. It could stall at any of those points.

But if the bill does eventually make it into law, get ready for a business boom in communities that border the Yellowhammer State. I foresee thriving adult entertainment sectors cropping up in Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida to accommodate Alabamans who want to sin but for a lot less.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Sex toys auctioned to pay Kansas stores' tax debt
• NY Museum of Sex paying off $82,192 sales tax lien
• Philadelphia loses effort to collect $1.5 million from strip clubs