Op-Ed: Should Swedish Agents Force Taxes on Web Cam Strippers?

Two things in this life are certain; death and taxes. What about all that time in between? For some Swedish agents those moments are spent prowling the Internet in search of naked women. Read on for some bare facts on this but…don’t take it all off!

According to news sources, Swedish authorities have been trying to collect back taxes on those performing soft porn by taking their clothes off in front of Web cams rather than a live audience. Is taking it off still taking it off? If you call it something else, does that change what it is? Methinks not. In the words of Dag Hardyson, the Swedish tax authority: “We had to do something. We want all these girls to be compliant with the system. The lost revenue, which could be nearly $5 million a year, is an increasing problem. They are young girls, we can see from the photos. We think that perhaps they are not well informed about the rules.” For the Swedes as is the case for many Scandinavian countries, the matter has nothing at all to do with sex. Financial impropriety is much more serious and a definite governmental no-no, faux pas. For example, it was reported that the deputy prime minister, who had a child out of wedlock, had to step down from her post in 1995 after she bought groceries with a government credit card. But what about the issue of privacy? Does that count for anything? Dag Hardyson stated: "That's not really our problem. They must be compliant [with tax regulations] and that's why we are looking at it. I don't think they have any costs really - almost 100% of what they earn is pocketed. Many have regular work and this is extra income. We want them to register their activity as a business. It’s still taxable, even if it's a hobby." The reality is that web cam stripping is proving very lucrative for some Swedish women and they are not paying taxes on their earnings. It is estimated that some two hundred strippers have been investigated so far but authorities feel the total number could be as high as five hundred. The investigation is just one part of a wider tax project involving online poker and fake trader locations. If the government can catch up to them, it is possible that these women could end up paying about half their earnings in tax. Web cam stripping is legal in Sweden although prostitution is not. So aye, there is the rub, as a bearded gent from Elizabethan England used to say ever so eloquently. How do YOU feel about this?