A senator from Iowa is trying to pass a bill that will give the IRS a $2 million budget to go after unlawful sex workers, in this case, unlawful being girls who don’t pay taxes. Fair enough; although why the IRS needs a special office for this is beyond me.
The bill also wants the IRS to go after pimps, especially pimps who don’t files taxes and don’t submit W-2s on the women they manage. The idea of pimps having to file W-2s on women that they refer to as “hos” (among other choice words) is hilarious. Of course, as part of filing a W-2, they would then have to declare their small business income and expenses. Wonder if diamonds and gold are deductible as business expenses?
But then the bill recommends extra jail time for the girls. There’s the rub. Jailing girls for breaking local laws is one thing and the jail terms for such offenses are set by local ordinances. Anyone who breaks tax laws and goes to jail already has the jail term set by federal tax laws. Adding jail time because the tax offender was a sex worker? Just a little biased, I think.
Should this bill pass, I can already see the effect. There will be some pimps busted, probably with a media circus. But there will be lots of girls, many who may not be associated with pimps, quietly sent to jail for longer terms than the usual tax offender simply because of their job. Historically, any time laws are passed to regulate the adult industry, the women bear the brunt of it. Laws passed to “protect” the women end up harrassing them and making their lives miserable.
The good senator also seems to be believe that this bill will help “…track the money flowing in this industry to get at potential criminals.” Potential criminals? Potential in what way? And what crimes would they potentially commit?Â
I ask these questions beause this bill could easily be used to torment plenty of women at all levels of the adult industry (legal and grey area), and possibly end up harrassing women who aren’t in the adult industry at all but aren’t proper tax citizens (for whatever reason). Then it becomes about gender, not about criminality. Jailing someone because she’s lax about her taxes and happens to have a pussy is not a good way to run things (yes, I’m imagining things and no, I don’t believe this scenario is too far-fetched).
On the surface, this bill seems like a step in the right direction to legitimize all sex work in this country. I lack faith in its effects, though.
FYI–According to a CPA I talked to who’s prepared taxes for many girls in the adult industry, it is not illegal for a girl to file her taxes as a prositute (or whatever term she wants to use). The IRS does not care what profession you use to earn a living. All they care about is whether or not you pay your taxes. This bill is supposed to make it easier for the IRS to pursue people in the adult industry that they believe aren’t paying their taxes properly.
Don’t forget that the IRS finally got Al Capone for tax evasion.
I don’t see how this is any different than any other tax evasion that they can stick an extra penalty for being a prostitute or pimp. That’s not really the IRS’s bailywick.
I would think that the woman could file taxes under “entertainer” and since it is a cash business, she should be okay unless her lifestyle and investments/savings were grossly disproportionate with how much money she claimed.
The government has been doing all type of nasty things with seizing supposed drug assets and doing so without even a trial. In some cases they did things like confiscate a large amount of cash from some black guy who had to pay lawyers to get it back. I don’t understand how such laws and the RICO statutes don’t violate due process because the assets are seized or frozen before any trial.