This organization takes sales tax very seriously — and is willing to go to great lengths to make sure a product’s taxability is correct.
The organization is Geneva’s Federal Administrative Court, and the product in question was an alcohol producer’s canned drinks.
When the court needed to determine whether the drink was sweet enough to be taxed as “alcopops,” (a term used for sweetened and flavored alcoholic beverages) it simply rolled up its sleeves and went to work.
At 10 a.m. on April 14 — an hour when less distinguished individuals were no doubt holding their own taste testing –two judges and a court clerk tested each of the company’s canned five drinks twice. Why twice? The drinks needed to be tested with and without ice.
Members of the Swiss Alcohol Board and Zurich drinks importer Bevis joined in the testing, as well.
In the end, the testing panel ruled that the drinks did in fact taste enough like alcopops to be taxed. No word on what else they accomplished that day.