Recently, I was going through the budgets of some 'big' weddings online, and my heart missed some beats. This made me ponder on a certain question I heard some time ago, 'Should Over the Top Weddings be taxed?'
Having in mind that a tax is a financial charge imposed by a state or any functional authority equivalent to a state on a taxpayer to fund various public expenditure.
First, I think the biggest problem here might not even be the tax in itself, but defining what "over the top" means because for everyone, "over the top" is relative.
Diana and Charles' wedding estimate was $48 million, Vanisha and Amit was estimated at $60 million, Kate and Williams' wedding cost $34 million, Sheikh Mohammed and Princess Salama cost a whopping $100 million, and also Kim and Kris' wedding cost $10 million...the list goes on and on.
(Please note these examples are stated because we don't have figures for weddings in Nigeria at this time- simply put, we (Nigerias) have not grown to be so comfortable to share these details).
Let's say; we agree to define an "over the top" wedding as any wedding above NGN50million (in Nigeria). Should such weddings be taxed?
To answer the question, I must say I struggle to understand why certain people are even thinking about this in the first place. No one should be bothered about how another person spends their money.
If they had worked hard or have gotten wealth; and decides to make their special day very grand, no one should be offended. No one.
More so, it is enough worries that you pay VAT on everything you purchase and pay heavily to vendors you hire for the wedding; you shouldn't be worrying about keeping your budget in check just because you don't want to be taxed. You should be able to plan with whatever you have with zero worries on paying the authority a levy after the spending.
My conclusion is, the government has already taxed their income and businesses. Therefore they should be free to use whatever they have left however they want to.
Photo Credit: Daniel Folley Weddings/Facebook