Tax break for witchcraft entrances students

Margarita Rongen, who teaches spells and potions to witches in the Dutch village of Appelscha, says a court ruling that gave her trainees a tax break brought in hundreds of potential new recruits.

Rongen, 56, who offers the Netherlands' only program that certifies witches, is getting applications from as far off as Australia and Dubai, she said.

The court, in the Dutch town of Leeuwaarden, ruled on Sept. 26 that the 1,830 euro (US$2,208) cost of her course is tax deductible.

"Many people who have reached a dead end come to me because they want to make a change in their life," said Rongen, who's been a witch for 37 years. "Now students know they will get their money back."

She spoke in an interview on Sept. 30 in her school's shop, which sells products such as blessed magic candles for 6.95 euro apiece.

Rongen has for seven years run 366-day courses, each encompassing 13 full moons at the school she founded and called Heksehoeve, or Dutch for "witch farmhouse."

The court decision, which recognizes her training as a legitimate way of making money, prompted Rongen to sell weekend tutoring and English-language compact discs. She's employed her son and his girlfriend, also a witch, to help.

Books including J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, helped raise awareness about magic, Ronge said. She holds five-day summer camps for children as young as 12.

Interest in witchcraft worldwide has been "resurgent," according to the Web site Bible.com, which promotes Christianity. Bible.com cites the popularity of the Harry Potter books as a reason. The Columbia Encyclopedia attributes a revival in witchcraft partly to attempts at new forms of healing and a reverence for nature.

Rongen's course "certainly helped me in my work," Maaike Buurman, 39, a pupil at Heksehoeve and plaintiff in the case that resulted in the tax ruling, said in an interview on Oct. 4.

The decision applies to taxpayers in the Netherlands on condition the training is used to earn money, said Gera van Weenum, a spokeswoman for the Dutch tax authority.

The ruling was questioned by the Christian Democratic Appeal, the largest party in parliament, on Sept. 29. The party asked to what extent a course for witches may be deemed useful for employment purposes. It said it intends to address the issue again in parliament.

Marcel Burgy, a tax adviser at Berk, an independent member of Baker Tilly International in Leiden said the court's ruling is logical.

"The plaintiff has clearly stated she's going to use the witch course to further her career," Burgy said in an interview on Oct. 4. "It wouldn't have been tax deductible if the plaintiff had taken the course just for fun."

Charlie Bruijsten, a tax adviser at Ernst & Young in Arnhem said Buurman qualified for the tax break because she took the course "with the objective of improving her position in the employment market."

Buurman, an actress, enrolled in Rongen's course so that she could teach about the Middle Ages and witchcraft in schools. She also does role-playing as a witch at Muiderslot, a castle in the northwest of the Netherlands built near 1280.

Rongen is adding weekend workshops at her school to meet demand.

Students who take Rongen's full, 13-moons witch course meet nine times in the course of a year at Heksehoeve from Saturday until Sunday at noon.