AT LAST, RECHARGER GETS WHY REAL ESTATE TAXES ON HIS DOGHOUSE DOUBLED LAST YEAR FROM $15 TO AN EXCRUCIATING $30. Turns out New York officials claim $1 billion-per-year tax losses from shady characters who hawk counterfeit goods--mostly on Broadway south of 34th Street. A little sixth-grade math, however, casts doubt on this figure. A $1 billion loss in tax revenues--$33 million daily—would mean that $11.9 billion of fake merchandise is sold annually in NYC (Only three years ago the city claimed tax losses on knock-offs were $500 million). Even the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy, a industry group trying to stop illegal knockoffs, says that for all of 2004 and 2005, the value of counterfeit goods sold within the entire United States was $4.8 million. The group estimates that daily sales of counterfeit merchandise are $23 million for the entire world.
Maybe the city confused the tax number with how many times Recharger was rejected last year on lookingforadoggymate.com?
-- Zachary Cohen