Joke of the Day

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"California".

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Small businesses that received $682 million in IOUs from the state say California expects them to pay taxes on the worthless scraps of paper, but refuses to accept its own IOUs to pay debts or taxes.

Entrepreneurship in the Golden State: A Tragedy
Act II, Scene III

State: "Hi, we owe you $20,000 for those goods and services you provided for us, but we're a little short on cash right now. Will you take this IOU, instead?"

Subject: "Do I have a choice?"

State: "Not really."

State: "And, oh, by the way, you owe us $2,000 in taxes on that."

Subject: "Can you just cut me an IOU for $18,000, and we'll call it even?"

State: "Um...no."

Subject: "But..."

State: "No buts. Now, pay up, or you'll face arrest and prosecution for tax evasion."

(Subject pauses to retrieve lower jaw from the dirt floor of his hut)

State: "Have a nice day, and thank you for doing business with the state of California."


UPDATE: As fate would have it, we're leaving first thing tomorrow for a ten-day trip to California. I'll be sure to bring some money from my kid's Monopoly set, in case we get any speeding tickets.

Or, I suppose we could use it to pay the sales and meals tax portions of any purchases we make while we're there.