"Black" Work; Greenland Greetings

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 7/3/01 8:31:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Bapopik at AOL.COM
writes:

>    From the COPENHAGEN POST, 29 June-5 July 2001, pg. 3, col. 5:
>
>  _"Black" attack_
>     ...anyone found to have paid a worker without also paying the required
> taxes or VAT, that is so-called "black" work, will be subject to criminal
> prosecution.
>     (Col. 6--ed.)   ..."black" money...
>     The Rockwell Foundation has estimated the "black" economy to be around
> DKK 34 billion annually...  (About 4 billion US dollars--ed.)

I doubt there is any connection between this use of "black" and "black" (i.e.
falsely attributed) propaganda.

In the US tax-avoiding payments to workers are sometimes called "under the
table" or "underground".  When some Clinton nominees were caught doing this,
the newspapers simply said "failed to pay taxes on...".

I am told that the Russians also use a directional rather than a visual
metaphor: "nalevo", meaning "on the left".  This is an interesting metaphor
considering that the government of the Soviet Union was definitely "on the
left".

Anyone on the list an expert on this particular financial sector?

I think the newspaper writer made a mistake.  My understanding is that the
VAT (value-added tax). like the US sales tax, is based solely on the PRICE of
the item and has nothing to do with how much the workers are paid.  If you
give your workers a raise without changing the price you charge for your
manufactures, then your VAT should stay the same, although the government
(hopefully) collects additional taxes on the wage raise.

      - Jim Landau
        Systems Engineer
        FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
        Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA