"How much was that doggy in its casket?"

[Taro Toporific]

Pet funeral lawsuit pits priests against tax assessors
(IHT/Asahi: January 22, 2004) / KASUGAI, Aichi Prefecture
How much was that doggy in its casket?
The taxman wants to know, but a temple that holds pet funerals seeks equal treatment for pooches and people once they've passed away.
That means tax exemption for earnings on pet funerals.
The Jimyoin temple filed suit in Nagoya District Court on Tuesday against tax authorities... seeking nullification of levies imposed by the Komaki tax office...`A memorial service is a religious act, which aims to heal the sorrows of bereaved pet owners and to console the soul of animals,'' an official of the temple said. ``It is clearly an operation that is not aimed to make profits.''

[Mulboyne]

Image linked from Andrea's Photo Blog

Asahi: Court: Pet funerals taxable
The Nagoya District Court on Thursday rejected a temple's claim that pet funerals should not be taxed because the services are religious in nature... In the nation's first ruling that said pet funerals at a temple should be taxed, the court ordered Jimyoin to pay 5 million yen in back taxes. The order stems from a 2003 tax levied on the temple's income from pet funerals held in the five fiscal years ending in March 2001. "Memorial services for pets are similar to funerals conducted by private companies, and, therefore, earnings from such services for pets should be taxable," said Presiding Judge Yukio Kato.

[Mulboyne]

Slight classification problem here at Kerala Times:

Sports; Japan taxes Buddhist pet funerals:
[Sports News] NAGOYA, Japan -- A court in Japan has rejected a Buddhist temple's claim that pet funerals should not be taxed because the services are religious in nature.

[emperor]

[Mulboyne]

Crisscross: Nagoya high court says temple's pet funerals taxable, not religious
The Nagoya High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that Buddhist-style funerals for pets conducted by a temple are not nontaxable religious activities. Presiding Judge Takeaki Noda dismissed the appeal filed by the Jimyoin Temple in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, which had demanded the annulment of taxation on the temple's profits from the rites for five years beginning in 1996.