Whether we’re talking about Nicolas Cage or Willie Nelson, you’re likely familiar with a few celebrities who have run afoul of the IRS.
And while this isn’t necessarily how they always settle unpaid back-taxes, it’s not unheard of for federal agents to seize valuable items in the homes of those who are on the hook for a massive tax bill that they can’t pay. As Rolling Stone detailed , that was precisely what happened to Nelson in 1990.
But while this may be an option in the IRS’ toolkit, it appears to be a much more widespread practice in Ukraine. And if one recent finding is of any indication, it seems that nation’s government has a pretty flexible definition of “valuable” items.
Since 2015, Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice has operated a website called Setam that allows the government to auction off confiscated items.
According to the BBC , these items came from those on the nation’s list of registered debtors and have generated 14.1 hryvnia (the equivalent of $506 million) for the government, with some of the seized property going to orphanages, hospitals and schools.
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Unfortunately, the past year has seen that list of debtors grow by at least 300,000 as Ukraine may soon face its worst recession in decades.
As the BBC reported and you might have guessed, this is due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen over 40% of Ukraine’s families deal with at least one family member losing their job.
Based on an OECD report obtained by the media outlet, this recession could see as many as 9 million among its population of 41 million living in poverty.
And one Ukrainian politician became the subject of ridicule after he had a less-than-helpful answer for those feeling the crunch right now.
According to News24 , 66-year-old Lyubov Kolyucha told one MP named Yevgeniy Brahar that her pension of 2,000 hryvnia ($80) left her unable to pay her gas bill, which led Brahar to tell her to sell her dog.
But while that may seem like one politician’s out-of-touch solution to a difficult problem, Setam came under fire for actually putting that idea into practice.
As the BBC reported, it’s not unusual for the website to auction off valuable domesticated animals like sheep or the cow you see here.
But the Ministry of Justice came under fire when it was discovered that two confiscated pet dogs were similarly put up for sale last year. One had a starting bid of the equivalent of three dollars.
Although you won’t see such offers on the site now, there are some similarly peculiar listings for debtors’ underwear that remain active at the time of this writing.
In fact, of the 67 articles of clothing listed in this search of Setam’s stock, about 35 of them were undergarments.
If the idea of a government allowing people to bid on its citizens’ underwear doesn’t already strike you as absurd, all appeared to have the same starting bid of 19.41 hryvnia, or 70 cents.
So unless they’re expecting intense bidding wars from…passionate collectors, it’s unclear precisely what they stand to gain from this unusual practice.
h/t: BBC
