The Czech Constitutional Court has ruled that income from voluntary sex work is subject to taxation, placing it on the same footing as earnings from other self-employed professions.
The decision clarifies that collecting taxes from sex workers does not amount to state approval of the activity.
The case concerned a woman who was ordered to pay more than CZK 900,000 in back taxes for income earned from paid sexual services in 2013 and 2014.
She challenged the assessment in court, but lower courts upheld the decision of the Czech Financial Administration. She subsequently appealed to the Constitutional Court, Novinky reported.
The woman argued that taxing prostitution effectively turned the state into a pimp, pointing to the distinction in Czech law between providing sexual services voluntarily for payment and acting as an intermediary in such activities.
While the former is not a criminal offense, procuring or facilitating prostitution in certain circumstances can be punishable under the Criminal Code.
The Constitutional Court rejected her argument, ruling that taxation serves a different purpose. According to the judges, the state is not profiting from another person’s labor but ensuring that taxpayers contribute fairly to public finances.
The court added that taxation should not be interpreted as moral approval of sex work or as official state recognition of the activity.
Under the ruling, income from prostitution falls into the category of earnings from independent professions.
The same broad category includes income earned by entertainers, coaches, athletes and models, as well as people who publish sexually explicit material on subscription platforms such as OnlyFans.
The court warned that exempting income from sex work would undermine the fair distribution of the tax burden and discriminate against other taxpayers.
The ruling does not legalize every activity associated with prostitution. Instead, it establishes that income earned through voluntary sex work must be declared and taxed under the same general principles that apply to other forms of self-employment.
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