This is one of those stories that you struggle to believe is actually true, but the Romanian government has decided to institute taxes on their witches. Witches, soothsayers and fortune tellers are such big business in the country that they are rumoured to generate untold millions. Hence the decision by local government to tax their trade.
In other news that should further concern the local witch trade, Romanian authorities are also pushing through a new bill to institute fines or even prison sentences for soothsayers and fortune tellers if their predictions don't come true.
Practitioners are arguing that they cannot be blamed for the failure of their tool.
In an telephonic interview with The Associated Press, Queen Witch Bratara Buzea said: "They can't condemn witches, they should condemn the cards."
Bratara also argued that practitioners could not be held responsible in every case because sometimes people provide false details.
In a country suffering through severe economic recession and constant political bungling, many experts argue that this move is nothing but a silly move by the government to divert attention from its own incompetence, and that there are far more important issues to deal with.
"The government doesn't have real solutions, so it invents problems," said Stelian Tanase, a renowned Romanian political commentator. "This is the government that this country deserves."
When the taxation bill was passed in January, witches responded by dumping dump poisonous mandrake into the Danube in an attempt to put a hex on government officials.
The new bill would also require witches to have a permit, to provide their customers with receipts and bar them from practicing near schools and churches.