Hungarian prostitutes to emulate Radio Shack

…by providing receipts.

Hungary’s tax authority will allow sex workers (or Budaprosties) to apply for permits and pay taxes on their earnings, adding legitimacy to an occupation that is already quasi-legal but not part of the Hungarian tax base.

Opponents say this move will allow Hungary to capitalize on human trafficking without improving conditions for sex workers. It also doesn’t address how johns might declare “Fellatio Services” on their taxes.

Read the full article after the gap.

Hungary Gives Permits to Prostitutes
By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
Monday, September 24, 2007
(09-24) 14:29 PDT BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) —

In an effort to bring prostitutes into the legal
economy, officials said Monday that Hungary will allow
sex workers to apply for an entrepreneur’s permit ˜ a
move that could generate government revenues from an
industry worth an estimated $1 billion annually.

Human rights groups often have criticized European
Union member Hungary for legalizing prostitution ˜
which has been fully allowed under certain conditions
since 1999. Opponents say legalization does not help
prostitutes.

The permits allow prostitutes to give receipts to
customers and become part of the legal economy by
paying taxes and making social security contributions,
said Agnes Foldi, head of the Hungarian Prostitutes’
Interest Protection Association.

Hungary’s sex industry ˜ including prostitution and
the production of pornographic materials ˜ generates
an estimated $1 billion annually, said Agnes Bakonyi,
the spokeswoman of Hungary’s tax authority APEH.

“It is one of the leading sectors of the shadow
economy,” Bakonyi said. “With this project, APEH is
trying to help a group of professionals, in what is
called the world’s oldest profession, who have never
paid taxes in their life.”

Prostitutes in Hungary, can work legally only within
certain zones ˜ distant from schools and churches ˜
and must get regular medical checkups. Pimping and
bordellos are banned.

Prostitution is legal in most of the EU with a few
exceptions such as Ireland, where it is banned. The
Netherlands has legislation comparable to Hungary’s,
where prostitution has a similar status to other jobs.

Foldi said about 20 prostitutes already had been
issued permits and more than 500 had applied to attend
counseling sessions organized around the country with
the help of APEH on issues such as financial planning
and accounting, as well as legal matters.

“Our aim is to make sex work become accepted as any
other job,” Foldi said. “Prostitutes come from the
poorest sectors of society … and it’s very hard for
them to, for example, get a loan to buy their own
home.”

Foldi’s group received a grant of $86,000 from the
government’s National Development Plan, which includes
EU funds, to advise prostitutes on the licenses.

“It is important for us to have as many participants
as possible,” Foldi said, adding that there are about
7,000-9,000 full-time prostitutes in Hungary, rising
to as many as 20,000 during the summer tourist season.

One of the prostitutes who already has been granted a
permit said she applied for it in an effort to improve
her future and self-image.

“From now on, no one will be able to ask me where I
got the money to buy my house or my car,” said Rebeka,
who would not give her last name. “Now we are also
part of a taxpaying group and we too are making a
contribution to society.”

Hungary is a signatory of the 1950 United Nations
convention for the suppression of human trafficking
and prostitution. But officials claimed the program
did not go against the spirit of the convention
because even though prostitutes would now be able to
get licenses, the government would not keep a separate
registry of them.

Critics say many prostitutes in western Europe are
foreigners often lured there under false pretenses.
They link prostitution to human trafficking.

Human Rights groups have said legalization and
decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry
does nothing to address the violence of prostitution
and does not help prostitutes.

Janice Raymond of the U.S.-based Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women said by issuing entrepreneurial
permits to prostitutes, Hungary is violating its
international treaty obligations under the U.N.
convention. She said countries such as Hungary that
have ratified the convention agree not to regulate
prostitution or subject women to any administrative
controls such as registration and taxation.

“Hungary is not issuing entrepreneurial permits to aid
the women in prostitution but rather to increase the
state coffers with the additional taxes to be gained,”
Raymond told The Associated Press by e-mail.

Previously: Hookers have no sense of humor; Memoirs of a Madam
See also: Hungary gives permits to prostitutes (sfgate)