New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, will hear arguments on Wednesday in a case pitting the state's Department of Taxation and Finance against a strip club called Nite Moves that is situated about 15 minutes from the state Capitol. The seven-judge panel is being asked to interpret an obscure part of the state tax code that exempts sales-tax charges for "dramatic or musical art performances." The state wants the court to prevent strip clubs from using the same sales-tax exemption as the New York City Ballet. Tax officials say sales taxes were paid on the club's non-alcoholic drinks, but are also owed on admission and so-called "couch sales," where patrons pay for private or lap dances. An administrative law judge previously agreed with Nite Moves, saying that "the fact that the dancers remove all or part of their costume ... simply does not render such dance routines as something less than choreographed performances." But the state Tax Appeals Tribunal said the club didn't present sufficient proof that it qualifies for the exemption, and a mid-level court upheld the tribunal ruling last year.
– Nude dancing is an art and should be tax-free, just like ballet performances, according to a strip club in upstate New York. Lawyers for Albany's Nite Moves will appear before the state's highest court today to argue that it doesn't need to pay sales tax on admission fees or lap dances, reports the AP. The club claims the dances are exempt under part of the tax code covering "live dramatic or musical arts performances"—and it has a cultural anthropologist as an expert witness. Before a lower court, the anthropologist testified that she had observed "choreographic patterns of exotic dance" at the club, noting that one dancer executed 61 moves in the course of three songs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The tax department, however, argued that a nude dancer is not "engaged in a genuine choreographic dance performance when she removes her clothing." Whatever the court decides may not have much impact on other establishments, since Nite Moves only serves non-alcoholic drinks, putting it under a different part of the tax code than most other strip clubs.