The state Court of Appeals yesterday grappled with the question of whether an upstate adult entertainment club with exotic dancers was exempt from a sales tax because it qualified as a “dramatic or musical arts performance.” Nite Moves, near Albany, is challenging a $125,000 tax assessment levied against it on its admission charges and private dances, or “couch sales,” because it says the dances are tax-exempt under state tax law.
During yesterday’s arguments, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman (See Profile) wondered whether the tribunal imposing the assessment was making a value judgment. “That had nothing to do with it,” Assistant Solicitor General Robert Goldfarb replied. Later, Judge Eugene Pigott Jr. (See Profile), sounding skeptical, asked Nite Moves’ attorney W. Andrew McCullough, “Can we get past that this is not the Bolshoi?” The judge went on to say the dancers were not trained and had to pay a sum of their proceeds to the proprietor in order to perform.
