Published
Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 16:41
- The news follows a related decision this week with regards to Berghain's tax exempt status.
Vienna's city government has lifted a tax that previously affected dance clubs, Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports.
The entertainment tax required all venues that host "public dances" (Publikumstanz in German) to pay a 15% tax on their ticket sales or admission fees. It only applied to dance parties, not live concerts, and as Electronic Beats points out, this comically led to one Austrian musician owing €10,000 because too many people were dancing at his show. As of January 1st, 2017, dance clubs will no longer be subject to this tax, which generated €5.6 million in revenue for the Viennese government last year.
The news follows Berghain's victory against a similar entertainment tax. The iconic nightclub was deemed a "cultural" space by Berlin's financial administration earlier this week (as opposed to an "entertainment" space), which greatly decreased the amount of money it owes in taxes. The situation also parallels an ongoing saga with Chicago's entertainment tax policy, which the county government is using to target dance clubs on the grounds that the music isn't "live."