The state in the role of "honorable" pimp

Switzerland opened a new chapter in the history of prostitution last week. The country that six decades ago "pulled its foot" in the legalization of the "oldest trade" did something that no one has done yet - it invested taxpayers' money (1,7 million euros) in opening a space for the exchange of sex for money. Nine drive-in garages that resemble car washes (they have no doors) were built in a former industrial area in Zurich, between the railway and the highway.

In March of last year, the citizens of Zurich went to a referendum, 53 percent of them said "yes" to sex garages and in that way, practically, they became the founders of the city's open-air brothel.

The precise Swiss thought of everything, including the sustainability of this system. Each of the 40 prostitutes working in the Zurich drive-in must be registered for this activity with the city authorities, must pay an annual permit for this practice in the amount of about 35 euros and, on top of that, be on site every evening at the beginning of working hours pay 4 euros, which go directly to the city treasury. The city has committed itself to allocating around 550.000 euros from the budget for the maintenance of this space every year.

Unlike street prostitution and advertising of sexual services, opening a brothel is legal in Switzerland. Sex workers, at least according to the law, are registered, regularly pay income tax, as well as VAT, and many accept credit cards as a means of payment. If we take into account the fact that Switzerland belongs to financially well-off countries, with mostly equally economically potent tourists, it can be assumed that only through legal means does it annually generate a significant income from prostitution. In such an organized system, do the Swiss reliably know how much money is being made in this industry, how many women are forced into this work, and whether the introduction of VAT on sexual services has improved the quality of life of sex workers and reduced the violence they suffer? The answer is: no.

Prostitution, with more or less freedom, has been legalized in almost half of the European countries so far. They all defended that decision with the view that it is primarily for the benefit of women who are involved in this business for various reasons. Driven by the honorable intention to stand in the way of sexual exploitation and sex-trafficking, states have recognized taxation as an effective solution, in return offering sex workers better working conditions, health, and in some cases, social and pension insurance. How effective and fair is this exchange and how does it look in practice in the most developed European countries?

RULES OF THE OLDEST CRAFT: Germany is considered to be the largest brothel in Europe with around 400.000 sex workers who generate a turnover of around 14,5 billion euros per year. Prostitution has been legal in Germany since 2002 and the law enabling it is considered the most liberal in the world. Sex workers are independent business entities that can work under a contract or independently, but are obliged to pay income tax and VAT. On the other hand, every city has the right to zone an area where prostitution in any form is prohibited. In Munich, for example, you won't see many street love sellers, in Hamburg they are allowed to work in clubs and only during certain hours, and in Berlin there are no restrictions, even on the street.

Given that recipients and providers of sex services prefer cash as a means of payment, the part of the law related to the payment of taxes has been strengthened with additional clauses. So, for example, in Berlin and some other cities it was initiated that prostitutes pay that tax in advance. For this reason, Westphalia charges 25, Bonn 30, and Berlin XNUMX euros per prostitute per day.

The first city in Germany to offer an explicit tax payment system for sexual services is Cologne. In 2004, the conservative CDU and the Green Party proposed to the city council that each person engaged in prostitution pay 150 euros per month in taxes, either through the brothel owner or as a private person. As a reason for the introduction of the tax, the state stated that its goal was to suppress prostitution. Instead, they collected 828.000 euros in taxes, while illegal prostitution flourishes.

Today, eleven years after its legalization, it turns out that the law, passed under the slogan of improving human rights, actually only opened the door to sex-trafficking even more. Experts estimate that between 70.000 and 100.000 women are brought to Germany annually to be sexually exploited. As far as the insistence on the improvement of health care is concerned, the fact that the law does not provide for mandatory medical examinations for prostitutes, speaks volumes about the concern for the life of prostitutes.

GOOD INTENTIONS OF NICHOLAS SARKOZI: The legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands also experienced a moral decline. Instead of an orderly system in which everyone gets what they want, with a minimal degree of abuse, this country got a rapidly growing criminality and a large number of illegal (and abused) prostitutes. However, this does not prevent the state from taxing them. Although until 2011 they somehow looked through their fingers, Dutch tax officials planned two years ago how to more efficiently collect the 33 percent tax on earnings. The decision was based on a simple calculation: there are about 80.000 prostitutes working in the Netherlands, who charge an average of 50 euros for a fifteen-minute session, which means that about 625 million euros are earned annually in this industry. The reason for tightening the measures was subsequently explained by the fact that the earlier collection was weak because only five percent of the love sellers voluntarily registered. Obviously, despite their free-spiritedness, no one even in the Netherlands likes to declare themselves a prostitute.

The pinnacle of hypocrisy was achieved by France, a country where prostitution itself is not illegal, but everything else about it is. The French government last year repealed a 2003 law that outlawed street solicitation. That law, which was fervently supported by Nicolas Sarkozy under the slogan that he wanted to break the chain of prostitution, primarily because of the women victims of that business, succeeded in banishing those same women from the city center to the outskirts where they were anything but protected.

Throughout the story, one gets the impression that mostly the taxation of sex workers is defined down to the smallest detail. Physical protection and medical examinations, even if provided for by law, are not subject to strict controls. Only one per million prostitutes live with dignity from their work. Most of them are used, abused and despised by the society that uses their services and above all, "for their good" wants to collect taxes from them through the state that has found itself in the role of "honorable" pimp.