When tax time comes around, some artists in Mexico head to their galleries rather than the bank. In 1957, the Mexican government set up a program to help their starving artists pay taxes — artists can gift paintings or other works of art to the government in exchange for owed taxes. A jury of art-knowledgeable people make sure the art is of a high enough caliber to keep things even. The program is based on the number of works an artist sells per year; an artist who only sells a few paintings, for example, may only have to give one to the government, whereas artists who sell many paintings may have to produce 20 or more.
More Tax Man Facts:
- The Mexican government's alternative tax program has resulted in a substantial government-owned body of artwork — the Mexican government has collected more than 4,000 pieces of art to display.
- The U.S. Tax Code consists of more than seven million words, more than 12 times the length of War and Peace, one of the longest novels ever written.
- Similar alternative tax programs exist in other countries, but on a larger scale. For example, instead of paying taxes in the U.S., the government will happily take the family house in exchange to taxes owed.