Monday, June 02, 2003 :::
My friend David, who works for a textile trade association, told me a story the other night. He commented that it makes him more libertarian, and it really is kind of ugly, but I'm telling it to be entertaining. So ignore, if you would, that this is your tax money I'm talking about.
The story begins with a particular type of wool fabric. As of a few years ago, this fabric was protected by a tariff of 35%. Imported suits made of the fabric were taxed at 25% -- in other words, domestic suit-makers were hurt by tariffs more than they were helped.
A few years ago, the suit-makers lobbied for, and got, a law that not only reduced the fabric tariff, but reimbursed American suit-makers for whatever tariffs they had paid in 1999. The law was poorly written, and the Treasury Department took a while to figure out how best to implement it. Eventually they solicited applications for reimbursement from suit-makers.
David goes to a tailor who runs his own shop, and makes his own suits. The tailor received a notice from the Customs service that he could apply for reimbursement. He knew that David worked with the textiles industry, and asked him for help. David said that, yes, he knew what that was about, and helped him submit papers to be reimbursed for $240.
Customs collected the applications, accompanied by documentation, by August of 2001. This paperwork was collected at New York City's World Trade Center.
In amongst the post-9/11 legislation, the Congress re-wrote the suit-makers' reimbursement law. The big suit-makers were impatient by this point, and didn't want to wait for the government to figure out how much every little tailor was to be reimbursed, so Congress decreed that any suit-maker owed over $5000 would be reimbursed based on what they had paid, and that those who had paid under $5000 would split up a pool of $1.7 million.
David's tailor got another letter, and submitted another application, again with David's help.
Not long ago, David got a call from his tailor. The tailor had received a check from the government, in response to the application. "I want to cash this check," he said, "but I don't want to go to jail." When he had seen the check, he assumed there had been a mistake, but, no, only 15 small suit-makers had applied for the money. The check for $110,000 wasn't a mistake.
My friend David has a new suit.
::: posted by Steven at 1:04 PM
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