How Much Should The Halloween “Dad Tax” Be?

Halloween has come and gone. Your little "employees" scoured the neighborhoods in search of goodies. Now that they have had their chance to skim the "haul" and get their fill of candy, it is time to audit the goods. It is time for Dad to get his cut of the heist.

It is something known as the "Dad Tax."

Urban Dictionary defines it as "The portion of a child's meal, Halloween candy, video game time, etc. that a father rightly takes as his own, mostly because you wouldn't be there without him. This particularly applies to things that your father buys for you - because there's no such thing as a free lunch, and life is hard, so you better get used to it."

Every year my son and I negotiate what the "Dad Tax" is going to be on his Halloween candy. The way I see it, if the government is going to tax an adult's income 20-30%, than the child should have to pony up that amount of their Halloween candy. Think of it as preparing them for the REAL WORLD, which very much involves paying taxes. We simply lay all of the candy out on the kitchen table and split it up into 4 gallon ziploc bags. Dad takes one and stashes it. Simple as that.

What do you think? Should I take it easy on my kid. Or should I take as much candy as I want, because I'm an adult paying all the bills?