Berlin
December 25, 2003
Cologne's sex industry was infuriated on Tuesday after the city decided to impose a "sex tax" to plug a gaping deficit in its budget.
Sex workers across the city threatened to go on strike over the measure, which will affect massage parlours, brothels, porn shows and table-dancing clubs.
The sex tax extends an existing "pleasure tax" on casinos and amusement arcades to cover "dancers, displays of people and similar activities with the aim of achieving an erotic effect". The move is expected to quadruple pleasure tax revenue to more than $A24 million a year.
The owner of a brothel on the western edge of Cologne, whose workers belong to a prostitutes' union in the city, said: "My girls have said they'll go on strike - that'll make the city sit up and listen to our complaints."
December 25, 2003
Cologne's sex industry was infuriated on Tuesday after the city decided to impose a "sex tax" to plug a gaping deficit in its budget.
Sex workers across the city threatened to go on strike over the measure, which will affect massage parlours, brothels, porn shows and table-dancing clubs.
The sex tax extends an existing "pleasure tax" on casinos and amusement arcades to cover "dancers, displays of people and similar activities with the aim of achieving an erotic effect". The move is expected to quadruple pleasure tax revenue to more than $A24 million a year.
The owner of a brothel on the western edge of Cologne, whose workers belong to a prostitutes' union in the city, said: "My girls have said they'll go on strike - that'll make the city sit up and listen to our complaints."
