BADLY TAXED BROTHELS ADD TO BUDGET WOES

[AussieMark]

Badly Taxed Brothels Add to Budget Woes

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government wasted $3.5 billion in 2003, failing to collect enough revenue from prostitution and funding projects such as a bicycle bridge the width of a road, federal auditors said on Tuesday.

In its annual report, the Federal Audit Office accused the government of failing to monitor its outlays closely enough and cited a long list of costly administrative bungles that were worsening the country's debt problems.

"We're running up record levels of debts, without regaining any fiscal room to maneuver," Dieter Engels, president of the Audit Office, said in a statement.

The criticism came as European finance ministers effectively suspended the European Union's budget rulebook by giving Germany more time to bring its budget deficit under the three percent limit of gross domestic product set by the Stability and Growth Pact.

Germany had balked at a recommendation by the EU Commission that would have amounted to it saving an extra $7 billion in 2004 to reduce its budget deficit.

The Audit Office's 2003 report said the government had no effective mechanism in place to monitor $23 billion in federal transfers to research institutes and foundations, and cited 82 examples of unnecessary expenses or uncollected revenues.

Among them was the construction of a 25-foot-wide bridge for cyclists, an 86 percent cost overshoot for work on a Navy training vessel, and army orders for ammunition for an anti-tank weapon that was virtually obsolete and out of use.

Berlin authorities often failed to collect rent for state-owned apartments, and the Robert Koch scientific institute had spent $885,000 on offices for a vice president even though that post had not yet been officially created.

The Office also said the government was losing up to $2.3 billion in annual revenue by failing to be consistent in gathering income and sales tax from brothels, which are legal in Germany.

Some regions tax their red light districts properly while others don't, the Office said, calling on the finance ministry to impose a uniform nationwide tax.

[mf_dolphin]

I don't even want to know what they call that tax!

[streetsoldier]

They call it the "Hormone" tax...why? WELL...

Do you know how to make a hormone?


DON'T PAY HER. LOL