ALBANY — Lap dances are not art.
The state’s highest court yesterday ruled against a strip club owner who sought to avoid paying state sales taxes by citing an exemeption the state treasury grants for “dramatic or musical arts performances.”
The Court of Appeals’ majority wrote that if intricately choreographed ice dances don’t qualify as tax-exempt arts performances, neither should “performances by women gyrating on a pole to music.”
The 4-3 ruling leaves the Albany-area strip club, Nite Moves, on the hook for $124,000 in state taxes, plus interest. The owner is considering an appeal to the US Supreme Court, lawyer W. Andrew McCullough said yesterday.
Dissenting Judge Robert Smith wrote that the law applies to a “dramatic or musical-arts admission charge” for “a live dramatic, choreographic or musical performance.”
“Choreography means dance, and clearly the women at Nite Moves dance,” he wrote.