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I'm sorry for my ignorance, but could someone give more context on this? I don't understand what "denatured alcohol" is, how it relates to tax avoidance, or wha
by chrisshroba 5y ago
I'm sorry for my ignorance, but could someone give more context on this? I don't understand what "denatured alcohol" is, how it relates to tax avoidance, or what illegal use people are finding for it?
- wodenokoto 5y agoYou tax alcohol for consumption but not for cleaning products, like rubbing alcohol. Now you need to figure out a way to stop people from consuming cleaning products.
- xyzzyz 5y agoRubbing alcohol is often isopropyl alcohol instead of ethanol, which makes it even more toxic.
- andai 5y agoMore toxic than what? I assumed you meant than methanol (which is added to ethanol-based cleaning products in the Netherlands), but then I read this on the Wikipedia page for isopropyl alcohol: >Isopropyl alcohol, via its metabolites, is somewhat more toxic than ethanol, but considerably less toxic than ethylene glycol or methanol. (Can't link link to the page due to mysterious iOS bug...)
- xyzzyz 5y agoThan ethanol (or denaturated ethanol).
- naniwaduni 5y ago"Even more toxic" is not usually the preferred phrasing for comparing with ethanol; it implies you're comparing with something that's already quite toxic, and ethanol, while indeed toxic, is not normally considered quite toxic enough that we don't need to go out of our way to stop people from drinking it.
- dcow 5y agoI don’t know what you’re going off about. It made sense to me.
- LorenPechtel 5y agoAll the rubbing alcohol around here is isopropyl alcohol, not ethanol.
- dijonman2 5y agoOr lower alcohol tax
- robbedpeter 5y agoOr don't do prohibition, or half ass prohibition with tax.
- bonzini 5y agoAge limits for selling also don't apply to denatured alcohol.
- jonny_eh 5y agoGovernments started adding poison to alcohol products that are not meant for human consumption. They did this because people would buy products like rubbing alcohol to produce alcoholic drinks at home, since they were cheaper (e.g. avoiding sales taxes).
- greiskul 5y agoThere are many uses for Ethanol like starting fires, some stoves, not to mention industrial uses. Alcoholic beverages are normally taxed with a 'sin tax' to discourage consumption. Goverments realized that people could just drink Ethanol that was sold for other uses, maybe mixed with stuff to make cocktails, but that circumvents the 'sin tax' i.e. tax avoidance. So some countries sell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol, which is alcohol with additives to discourage consumption. Some countries limit themselves to just adding a foul taste and smell, while some add poisonous substances to it to make it toxic.
- matheusmoreira 5y agoAlcohol is extremely useful for many things but some people will drink it if they find it. So they add denatonium to it to discourage that. Alcohols that are meant for people to drink are taxed more heavily, so adding denatonium puts it into a completely different category of product thereby avoiding all those taxes. Just like the way Sony avoided taxes by adding Linux support to the PS2 and PS3 which caused it to be classified as a different type of computer.
- totetsu 5y agoDid sony pay that tax when they removed linux support?
- DonHopkins 5y agoA computer not running Linux is considered a sin, so it's taxed??!
- lazide 5y agoTaxed differently - gaming console (aka entertainment) vs ‘work computer’.
- DonHopkins 5y agoObviously the government doesn't understand Turing Completeness, and that some people game professionally, while other people hack for fun, so they made a sin tax error.
- vondur 5y agoMany countries levy a tax on alcohol in beverages. One way around that is to put something in it that makes anyone who drinks it sick. If you have an industrial process that can use denatured alcohol, then you don't have to pay the alcohol tax.
- hoangdung123 5y agoyeah same
- verisimi 5y agoThis is governments protecting their tax margins. They tax stuff some people like, because other people think its bad. But some stuff they can't tax because companies want it, so they make it taste awful or poisonous so people won't like it.
- heavyset_go 5y agoEthyl alcohol is an industrial solvent. People like to drink it. The market is bifurcated into industrial use and recreational use. The former can often use impure alcohol for their purposes, or explicitly require it, but those impurities are poison if consumed.