A story about Government

Via Cato: German Coffee tax collection costs dwarf revenue.

"Tax collectors ended up with just 25,000 euros, way below the 800,000 euros in the costs of staff charged with collecting the payments..."

Germany should consider themselves lucky, probably. Dieter Engels, head of Germany's Federal Accounting Office, had this to say:

"While the financial and customs authorities are too lax on some occasions, they go overboard in others," Engels said.

"This has led to somewhat grotesque results in coffee taxation."

And so it goes...