You’re Taxing What?

You know, this one is probably one of the weirdest ideas to come out of Denmark in recent history. It appears that the Danish tax authorities have decided to tax sperm donors. That's right. Sperm donors.

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - One of the world's largest sperm banks, Denmark's Cryos, said it feared recent changes to tax laws requiring donors to declare income from their contributions would put their anonymity at risk and lead to a fall in donations.

"The tax authority has introduced new rules that apply to human guinea pigs and sperm donors. This will have consequences, it will be harder to find volunteers," Cryos managing director Ole Schou told AFP.

Each sperm donor in Denmark receives around 250 kroner (45 dollars, 33.50 euros) per donation, primarily to cover travel expenses.

Until now sperm donations in the Scandinavian country were anonymous and sperm banks themselves were not authorized to record donors' identities.

While the tax authority is required to respect donors' confidentiality, Schou feared the system was not infallible.

Cryos has 250 regular donors and attracts between 300 and 500 new volunteers every year. The company undertook a poll among 100 of its donors to discover if the changes to the tax law would dissuade them from contributing.

They amount of money involved is a joke. It's not like someone is going to become fabulously wealthy by making deposits in a sperm bank. Perhaps the tax authority would like to be paid in the appropriate bodily fluid?