The Taille in America

The Taille in America

fiction
edward w pritchard


Donae had been a soldier for over twenty years, an on the road salesman of custom made shoes for 12 years , and an employee of the local school system for another dozen years. Despite his excellent work habits and three pensions he still needed to work in his retirement. Being a talented woodworker, Donae after age 67 began to make small birdhouses, that were actually children's banks to keep coins and currency in to save money for a child's future education. Each birdhouse was authentic in all ways, but instead of two large holes for a bird to fly in and out of, the birdhouse bank had only a small slot for coins. It was designed to look like a real birdhouse and to that end was made of fine wood with a few hand painted designs and a rope to hang the birdhouse bank from a tree on. Actually of course the rope was to be attached to a shelf in a child's room for safe keeping of the money they saved. Each bank birdhouse had a hand hand painted slogan near the rope with the expression in red of :" Don't let your money fly away" as a commandment to the children on the art of saving money.

One July morning Donae and his twenty five year old son were in southern Ohio near the Ohio river to buy custom cured wood to replenish his inventory. Business had been brisk because Donae had been selling the banks to school children through his contacts in the local school system and the banks were selling as fast as he could make them. While at the specialty mill, where Donae traveled over 75 miles to buy the fine wood, a fellow soldier who worked at the mill,who enjoyed talking to Donae; gave Donae and his son a lead on acquiring some fine wood available for free down on the Ohio River. There were several pieces of wood that had been submerged there for at least 6 years. The fellow soldier knew this because he was a fisherman and had spotted the wood last Summer and had been waiting for Donae to come into the Mill to tell him about it.

Donae and his son took their truck near the Ohio and West Virginia border as instructed and sure enough there were over 15 large railroad ties submerged just near the shore on the Ohio side in a mess of shrubs and under growth. After calling his lawyer, in Kent Ohio, Danae and his son loaded the logs with some trouble onto the truck and took them back to the kiln to be dried and processed. The lawyer after a little research had said that in his opinion, based on a brief review of Ohio and West Virginia Law, in riparian and Maritime rights of salvage , the wood could be theirs to keep. The lawyer said they must give written notice of the salvaging of the logs for three consecutive weeks in a local newspaper, in the nearest town to the salvage sight, in Ohio and West Virginia and after that amount of time the logs would be theirs.

The Logs when dried and kilned proved to be not railroad ties but very valuable primordial oak that had been submerged in the Ohio River for over 175 years. Because of the quality of the Oak and the fast flowing speed of the Ohio river the wood had not rotted but had improved with age. Each log was over two hundred years old before sinking into the river, probably in a boating collision during a storm. Each log was worth over $5,000 dollars and as a group probably $75,000 to $100,000. Several Mill owners in the area were offering up $100,000 for the logs because the wood was no longer available at any price because there was no more primordial forest in WVA or Ohio and a fine furniture maker would pay a fortune for the product.

Several people when they heard of the windfall for Donae tried using Ohio or West Virginia laws to claim ownership of the wood but primarily because of Donae following to the letter the advice of his attorney in Kent, Donae was able to successfully over come the challenges of all usurpers.

Donae after some thought and calculation decided rather than going to the trouble and work of manufacturing the inventory into bank birdhouses to instead sell the wood to one of the mill owners on the Ohio river for the $100,000. Because of the size of the transaction Donae retained his Kent Attorney to handle the sale.

About a week later the Attorney, who was a friend of Donae's and a straight shooter called Donae with some bad news. Both Ohio and West Virginia were claiming a 5% sales tax on the sale and the Federal Government wanted various taxes and fees adding up to 23%, in the event of the sale of transfer of the wood. If Donae kept the wood for his own use there would be no Federal taxes but he would still owe the State taxes of 5% to both States .In the end after Attorneys fees taxes and various costs Donae would net only $72,000 on the sale. It was a tough decision but Donae then decided to thank and pay his Attorney and cancel the sale and re manufacture the fine oak into birdhouse banks.

The birdhouse banks when finished with the fine oak were spectacular. Donae and two helpers had made over 8600 in a six month period and had been selling the banks in the local school system, at Amish craft shows in central Ohio, and with his niece's help on the internet all over the world. In the six months since he had decided to cancel the sale to the mill owner while engaged in hand making the banks, Donae had sold on average of ten per day at the new price of $89.99. He still had nearly 6,000 banks left and was making a nice profit on each bank and at the suggestion of his niece who was a marketing major at Akron University he raised the price to $200.00 He also decided to sell the banks on the internet in China the fastest growing economy in the world at the time of this story.

Donae had an old Army buddy who was half Chinese who assisted him with preparing the ad for the Chinese market and translating the commandment " Don't let your money fly away" into Han Chinese. Once the ad was finished Donae contracted with a local marketing company to ship any of the birdhouses sold in China and after all his costs at $200 he would still net about $ 100 per bank as company owner , and another $10 per bank for himself as master craftsman on the project.

Once the birdhouse banks posted on the internet in China the entire 6,000 remaining birdhouse banks sold out in 29 minutes. There had been a picture in the ad of the beautiful bank made of primordial American oak, but the reason for the fast sale was a mistranslation of the commandment "Don't let your Money fly away".
Apparently there was a colloquial expression in Han Chinese, unknown to Donae's American half Chinese soldier friend that implied that the oak bird house banks were made from pieces of the true cross of Jesus. It was considered lucky to store one's money in such a bank although most of the purchasers in China did not believe the claim in a literal sense. Never the less because of the recent prosperity in China and the superstitious nature of some people in China it was considered very good luck to keep money that would later be used for gambling in the birdhouse bank. The Chinese loved to gamble and the implied blessing of Jesus was considered a very good omen and the banks sold like hotcakes once Donae's ad hit the internet in China.

Donae again retained his friend the Attorney from Kent to assist him with the transaction and about three weeks after all the product had shipped, the bills for every sale had been collected in full, for they had used pay pal which guaranteed a 100% collection rate.

The same day, the Attorney called with more bad news. Donae had netted $658,000 from the sale of the birdhouse banks in China. This included his ownership profits and his share as chief craftsman. However, because the sale in China was governed by international trade laws each state in America that were on the Ohio river, or the Mississippi river were claiming a 5% sales tax on the transaction. The Ohio flowed into the Mississippi river between Ohio and Louisiana at New Orleans and since Donae had no direct casual evidence where the logs were actually from, the States were claiming an ancient sales tax of 5% on the sale. The States were very excited because this represented one of the first times they were able to successfully litigate internet sales taxes. According to the Attorneys best guest 20 American states were claiming 5% each or 100% of the $658,000, and the Attorney was sad to report to Donae that they appeared to have an iron clad case. Additionally because the lead plaintiff for the States was Louisiana it would cost more than $658,000 for any Attorney to fight the case because of travel and costs.

The Attorney did have two pieces of good news. Because of the patent inequity and absurdity of the States position, although it was completely legal; the Kent Attorney had been able to have the Federal Government through the IRS, not take their normal taxes which would require Donae to go in the hole on the sale. The IRS did not wish to litigate the issue against the States, although they had first right to any funds under normal circumstances.

The real good news however, for Doane was that the Attorney was able to use French Napoleonic law as precedent, since the lead State, Louisiana used the Napoleonic Code, as any one who saw the play "Street Named Desire", as explained by Brando, will remember. Quoting and siting the Napoleonic Code , Donae's Attorney was able to get the States to let Donae keep the taille. The taille was a tax that had probably caused the French Revolution in 1789.

The taille was an ancient tax in France usually applied unequally to the common poor, the third estate, which because of the exemptions of the nobility and the clergy caused the middle and lower classes to pay the bulk of the taxes. In addition to the taille another tax, the vingtieme [twentieth in the English language] was a 5% tax on income in 18th century France that many say was the precursor of the sales taxes in the United States.

After the terror of the French Revolution the people were eager for stability and the General Napolean provided it. One of the first things that Napoleon through his world famous law code did was to amend the now suspended taille [ the taille had been suspended in the French revolution] . However, in deference to the poor, Napolean allowed a commoner to claim a 5% exemption from taxation in an egregious case of inequity. Donae's Attorney had skillfully claimed the taille and Donae was going to be able to ultimately keep 5% of the $658,000 for himself, for a net on his sale of the birdhouse banks sold in china on the internet of $34, 631. Additionally, there would be no federal taxes due, although Donae would of course have to later pay the usual federal income taxes. Additionally the States agreed to pay Donae's attorney fees out of their 95%. Donae's Attorney gained considerable notoriety because of how he successfully handled the case and numerous small business men have requested his assistance with cases related to,even if distantly, to the exemption for the taille. The local small businessmen, including several auto repair shops, have contacted the Kent Attorney so they can at least keep 5% of the fruits of their labors.

In an article in the local small business journal about the situation, Donae summarized the tax situation he encountered while selling the birdhouse banks by internet in China as:

Individually taxes aren't so bad but when grouped together and calculated properly they can really add up.