Sex Workers & Taxation
• Sex Workers
Tourists visiting Australia are selling themselves and - the horror - not collecting or paying taxes!
Many young tourists to sun-soaked northeastern Queensland state were making a quick buck as black market prostitutes, undermining registered operators’ attempts to uphold health and safety standards, the Queensland Adult Business Association’s Nick Inskip claimed.
Brothel owners accuse backpackers of selling sex in Australia
From some of the entertaining commentary on Reason’s Hit & Run blog:
This is the one thing that’s bothered me about the whole “legalize vice and tax it/regulate it” wing of libertarian thought. OK, let’s say we follow do just that: We legalize prostitution and tax it order to pay for the State to make sure the sex workers are STD-free and are using contraceptives. OK, how much is that tax going to be? Will it be low enough so that the average, lonely, working-class Joe (like myself) could still afford a few ours of carnal bliss, or will the new taxes drive the price up to Vegas brothel levels, were a “party” can run upward anywhere around $5000-$10,000?
When Brothels Are Overtaxed, Only Tax Rebels Will Be Illegal Prostitutes
Will government spending ever lead to more legal sex work here in the land of the born-again?