A great Source of Revenue -- Sex!

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I hear that there is going to be a new tax in the city of Dortmund. Holy cow! Governments will tax everything.

Yet in a time of horribly large debts, can other countries ignore that possible income stream? Canada's province Ontario recently had some of its laws regarding prostitution struck down (and subsequently re-established pending some oversight) and talk is running high about the possibility of recognized, legalized prostitution.

I know it's legal in Germany, and the Netherlands, and IIRC New Zealand. How close are other jurisdictions to recognizing it and taxing it?

 

That has to be a great job being the guy who sells them their "day pass".

 

"Hi there, Beth, it's nice to see you today! What are you doing for the rest of the day? Oh, you want a Trick Ticket? I guess that answers my question . . . !"

 

Poor hard-working girls. Tasteless.

 

Not a bad idea really.

 

And here, after reading the topic title, I had (very unwanted!) images of Joe Biden offering up his, umm...

Well, never mind...

 

I don't find it particularly surprising - why not tax it, after all? I always thought that was one of the main arguments for legalization - that and keeping the income out of the hands of organized crime.

Now, if that tax breaks the businesses, things can get... tricky.

 

Well, they tax your food and your shelter, so I guess there's only the one other natural drive left to tax, huh?

Seriously, though, if it's a recognized profession, it should be taxed like all the others. This does sound like an exceptional tax, though, which is frequently the first step on the road to prohibition.

 

Nah. Prostitution is not going to get prohibited in Germany. Besides, this is not a tax, but a municipal levy. Also noteworthy, the city of Gelsenkirchen tried to introduce such a levy and it was crushed in court as illegal. My town has such a levy since 2004, and so far it has yielded about € 800.000.

In Germany prostitutes do pay income tax. Since there is no decent bookkeeping and business is conducted, among other things, orally, there are no records for the tax office to examine. Thus, prostitutes are examined and judged by their looks an estimate is made how much they make every day (I am not kidding). Speak about pragmatism.

The entire situation is somewhat hypocritical however, since the 'business' they tend to is considered 'sittenwidrig'. Claims from prostitutes towards customers will thus fail in court. That's an anachronism, but more important, the situation is inconsistent legally: If the business is good enough to tax it, then the label of 'Sittenwidrigkeit' is questionable and claims ought to be good enough to be enforced in court as any other contract (even though that may be messy, scary or just entertaining).

Alas, that is not so, and thus prostitutes will, for the enforcement of their claims, have to continue to rely on some strong arm to, if need arises, strongarm.

 

Same price?

Seriously though - the city claims it's doing this to reduce it's deficit, but they are undone by their own admissions. Their deficit is currently around €300 million. They admit that this tax will only bring in around €750,000 annually. So this tax will pay down the deficit in around 400 years, if there's no interest.

It also seems very inconvenient for those in the profession - a separate pass for EACH DAY you work? Seriously? That doesn't make any sense. Even a week's pass wouldn't make sense. You have to go to some office somewhere every day you want to work, to buy essentiallly a license that allows you to go to work? Absurd.

 

In my understanding the daily element is simply in order to calculate the amount they have to pay - i.e. presumably the ladies pay less when they work less (a 'one-size-fit-all' poll tax would probably be disproportionate and thus illegal). They probably get one pass for the entire year.

As for the rest, the revenue is so-so, and then there also is the overhead that administering the tax costs, and the cost for that have to be subtracted from the revenue, but then, it is probably administered by staff they have on their payroll already. It is really desperation that speaks. Dortmund has serious difficulties economically since the demise of heavy industries in the area. On the other hand, I'd rather have them tax bordellos rather than close down schools.

 

Who, me?