Wait, What? Bizarre Taxes Here and Abroad

“Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society”

This famous quote by US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr is carved over the entrance of the IRS’s headquarters in Washington DC.

When you read it aloud, it’s pithy and sounds enlightened and sophisticated, doesn’t it? But here’s the thing, even though the majority of taxes collected enhance society and are in place to fund welfare and public services, there are others that, let’s say, aren’t. Some are logical and others, not so much.

Here are some of the strangest ones I know about:

  • The Jock Tax: Back in 1991 after the Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals, California responded by taxing the earnings of the Chicago Bulls players (and all others associated with the team who made the trip to California). Illinois evened the score (see what I did there;) by initiating their own jock tax. There are now about 30 states and municipalities that have jock taxes in place.

 

  • California’s Fruit Tax: It’s not unusual for states to ratify taxes to curb unhealthy behaviors. But I don’t know what was behind the 33 percent tax California added to fruit bought in vending machine. Seems like they’d prefer you bought candy—which is not taxed at the same exorbitant rate—in the next machine.

 

  • Tax on Illegal Drugs: Tennessee passed a law in 2005 (called the crack tax) that required drug dealers to pay taxes anonymously (duh) on illegal substances like marijuana, cocaine and moonshine. After paying they would receive a stamp as a receipt of payment.  If they were arrested and didn’t have a stamp, the state would also go after money owed. Tennessee collected more than $6 million from the crack tax before it was overturned in 2009 by the Tennessee Supreme Court.  It was deemed unconstitutional.

 

The US isn’t the only place with weird tax laws.  Read on:

  • Canada’s Tax-Break on Breakfast Cereal: Evidently, our neighbors to the north grant cereal makers a tax exemption if their boxes of cereal contain a free toy. If you wonder why this made my list, it’s because the tax exemption is limited to toys that are not beer, wine or liquor.  Without the added stipulation, do you think our Canadian buddies could be enjoying some free red wine with their Wheaties?

 

  • China’s Pro-Smoking Campaign: On the flip side of taxing unhealthy behaviors, the citizens of the Hubei province of China find themselves living in an upside-down world. In 2009 China was in an economic crisis and since most of the local taxes come from cigarette sales, residents were ordered to buy cigarettes or face a fine. The government thought the pro-cigarette smoking tax was a great solution since it would not only provide tax revenue from the sale of the cigarettes but would also bring financial prosperity to China’s local cigarette makers. Win-win (cough-cough)!

 

  • Sweden’s Baby Name Approval: Swedish citizens are required to submit their baby’s name to the Swedish tax agency for approval within 3 months of their birth or face a fine of 5,000 kroner ($770 U.S.). The law was instituted in 1982 to prevent citizens from using royal names. It was replaced by another law in 2017 that says that a first name will not be approved if it’s felt it could cause offense to others, or discomfort for the one using it.

 

Believe me when I say the above list is just a small handful of the many bizarre tax laws I read about while doing my research. It seems like lawmakers are only limited by their imaginations—and boy are they an imaginative group!

 

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

Married to Your Job? Time for Some Marriage Counseling

I continue to be amazed by the sheer volume of reports, studies and research that focus on stress and the related health effects excessive stress can cause.  In particular the stress our jobs can cause us and what to do about it.

Do you ever feel married to your job?  I know at times in my career I have.  In fact, at one point I had to make a choice of staying in my career path or sacrificing my family life.  To me there was no choice: hands down I chose my family.

That is not right for everyone, however, and to be straight about it my decision caused a whole different kind of stress, along with some very significant adjustments to a new path.  Yet I have never looked back and that decision made all the difference.

Don’t get me wrong, hard work is not a bad thing. And some level of stress is actually a good thing. The fulfillment we feel being part of a team that successfully develops and grows an enterprise is one of the best feelings ever.

Yet where is that line between working hard and becoming a ‘workaholic’?  What can we do about it when it gets to be too much?

I found some answers in an article published by the Harvard Business Review, “How Being a Workaholic Differs from Working Long Hours — and Why That Matters for Your Health” by Lieke ten Brummelhuis and Nancy P. Rothbard (read it here).

First, what defines a workaholic?  “The term ‘workaholic’ was coined in 1971 by the psychologist Wayne E. Oates, who referred to ‘an uncontrollable need to work incessantly’ as an addiction. Workaholics are characterized by having an inner compulsive drive to work hard, thinking about work constantly, and feeling guilty and restless when they are not working.”

Do hard work and workaholism go hand in hand?  “Workaholism often goes hand in hand with working long hours, but the two are distinct: it’s possible to work long hours without being obsessed with work, and it is possible to be obsessed with work but only work 35 hours a week or less.”

Their research went on to show that workaholics experienced a whole array of significant, sometimes severe, physical and mental health problems. “We found that work hours were not related to any health issues, while workaholism was.”

“Specifically, employees who worked long hours (typically more than 40 hours a week), but who did not obsess about work, …reported fewer health complaints than employees who demonstrated workaholism. We found that workaholics, whether or not they worked long hours, reported more health complaints and had increased risk for metabolic syndrome; they also reported a higher need for recovery, more sleep problems, more cynicism, more emotional exhaustion, and more depressive feelings than employees who merely worked long hours but did not have workaholic tendencies.”

Not fun being a workaholic.  And it can be very difficult to change that behavior, but it can be changed.

Some tips:

  • “[A]cknowledge when a relationship to work is unhealthy — when it feels out of control and is undermining outside relationships.” In other words, the first step is to acknowledge one has a problem and become willing to take steps to fix it.

 

  • “[R]egain control over your work behavior. One way to do this is by setting clear rules for how many hours you will work each day.” Basically, develop good habits to know when to shut off work and then engage in activities completely detached from work.  For example, spending time with family, friends, reading.  Anything unrelated to your work.

 

  • Take time to “…reflect on the reasons why you work excessively and compulsively. We found a striking difference in work motivation between engaged and non-engaged workaholics. Whereas engaged workaholics worked because they enjoyed their work or found their work meaningful (these are intrinsic motivators), non-engaged workaholics were more likely to work for extrinsic motivators such as money and status. Intrinsic motivation is associated with more optimism, effort, and persistence, whereas extrinsic motivation often instigates anxiety and undermines persistence, making failure more likely.” So, liking what you do can help the situation.

 

  • Finally, one point I would add is that self-medicating to treat workaholism is not a good choice. It may feel good in the short term to decompress after a hard day by using alcohol or pills, but be real about the reasons you do this.  The regularity of medicating the problem can often only make it worse, like adding gasoline to a fire.

 

So, you may ask why a debt collection agency would publish a blog on workplace stress and workaholism?  Well, the fact is that this is a systemic and endemic problem in our work culture throughout the country.  We do our best to help our own staff members stay on the healthy side of the work load.  That helps them, but also you, our valued clients, as we always endeavor to provide the best possible service we can.  Of course, if by passing this information along to you, it may help you or someone else you are close to, then even better.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

 

 

Terrorism by Technology: “What Hath God Wrought?”

“What Hath God Wrought?”  That message was sent to Samuel F.B. Morse in 1844 by his assistant using his “Morse” code, and thus inaugurating the new, state of the art, Baltimore to Washington telegraph system. I wonder if he is spinning about in his grave realizing the understatement that message represents today?

What strikes me is how even then how quickly people began to find ways to ‘hack’ this new system.  That is what we would call it today I would think.

When taking a longer view, I can’t think of an example where a development in the storage or transmission of information has not been just as quickly followed by new methods to intercept it, steal it, profit from it, or acquire it for other uses which it was not intended. 

The advent of more sophisticated technology has simply accelerated not only the flow of data but the sophistication of those bent on intercepting it.

My friend and colleague Lisa Brammer wrote a blog for us a few weeks ago regarding her personal experience with the Equifax data hack.  To me it is staggering that more than half the population of the United States had their personal information stolen and it took weeks before the theft was reported.  Her experience underlines how ill prepared so many companies are to not only deal with a breach but then to take appropriate responsibility for the consequences.

Truly, though, it is not what God wrought but what we have indeed wrought upon ourselves.

A case in point in my own experience tells a similar tale.  Just last week I received an email from the manufacturer of our home router telling me that a critical security update for the router firmware was available.  The message conveyed a great sense of urgency to download the firmware update.

Now, I am fully aware that one of the oldest tricks hackers use is fake email disguised to look like it is from a trusted provider.  In my head I know better, but I reacted emotionally and blindly followed the instructions to log into my router to get the update.   Instead I got nothing.  The page said I was not even connected to the internet, but of course I was.

I set it aside for a bit, but then it hit me I may have been directed to a fake site which then captured the login information for my router.  I checked the e mail again, its links, and then the manufacturers website and ultimately found it was legit.

Even then, when I did get it to download, it did not install correctly.  It promptly locked up my router, disconnected the internet and caused general panic. 

What were they thinking in communicating such an important update in this way?  What to do now? 

I took a chance and rebooted the router and—voila!—it magically worked.  The firmware was installed and all was good, heart palpitations aside.  I suspect I will find another vendor when I need to replace this router.  Why they used this method to communicate such important information is beyond me. 

So, what is the point here?

First, the fact is that despite our best attempts to thwart this insidious menace, theft will be always be with us regardless of advances in security and new technologies.  New threats, new methods of attack, will come at us all every day. 

Second, to protect ourselves we need to be ever vigilant, both in our personal and professional dealings with internet and data security.

Finally, know that we are humans too. We have personally felt the pain of data breaches as much as the next person.  We know our valued clients have placed their trust in us.  We endeavor to stay one step ahead of the next threat and employ the latest, state of the art technology to keep our data safe. We are proud to say that we have yet to experience a successful breach, even though, like just about every company, we frequently come under attack.  Knowing how critical data security is to our own lives, we apply that tenacity to ensuring our clients are protected as well. 

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 12 years.