U.S. Senator Charles Grassley is pushing a bill that would levy a tax on pimps and possibly on other sex workers. How can the government tax an industry that isn’t legally recognized? Would this bill effectively legalize prostitution? Because that’d be awesome.
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Pot is already taxed in twenty states… It’s really a cash grab.
They want to be able to get people on tax evasion while they’re at it.
That’s screwed up as well. I don’t understand how taxing an illegal substance or business can be rationalized.
Meanwhile in Nevada, where prostitution is actually legal, brothels and sex workers are fighting to have their industry taxed because it currently isn’t, and they’d like the public goodwill they hope will come from contributing to public services like schools and parks.
I really don’t understand this. I think prostitution should be legalized, so that it can be taxed and regulated. But, seriously, can someone (maybe one of you lawyers who read this blog) please explain to me how an industry that is illegal in this state can be taxed? Isn’t the state then making money off of illegal activity? And, what, are they going to arrest pimps and prostitutes and tax them? Get ‘em twice?
Hmmm… Well, I guess the CNN article’s lede says it all:
That’s just shitty. Party of small government, my ass.
I’m really getting sick and tired of all this short-sighted, pander-to-ignorant-voters legislation. Carol Leigh has got it right:
Of course, that’s exactly what she’s been saying for over a decade… maybe one day lawmakers will actually listen. (Not holding my breath given the current sitch, though.)
If you tax it the price will go up and then what will ugly poor people do for sex?
I don’t know that taxing an illegal industry necessarily provides any legal recognition to it because you’re still just taxing individual earnings. As the article mentions the current tax law already allows for prosecution of pimps and sex workers if they fail to report their income or pay taxes on that income, just like it allows for prosecution of bartenders, waitresses, strippers, hairdressers, or anyone else working in a service industry that is largely paid in cash and is required to accurately self-report their income. That’s always been an option to go after the earnings of any person engaged in illegal work–after all it’s how the US finally got Al Capone.
I do find the specific proposal that pimps be required to file W-2s for their prostitutes to be strange, because what little I know about tax law indicates to me they’d be independent contractors in most situations. That just tells me that Grassley is spinning his wheels about how best to attack this industry and hasn’t really thought through the practical and legal ramifications of his proposal.
There’s already a tax on pimps and hoes, it’s called FINE AND PROBATION.
Underground economy, Buzz.