Sex Work And Taxes
I hear it all the time. It’s often deployed against sex workers as an attack line. I saw it again just the other day on a heated, controversial, sex work thread on the bird app. A commenter (a guy, it’s always a guy) spewed out the old sex-workers pay a zero tax rate trope. As an insult, “you don’t pay taxes” comes in just below “you’re a whore, shut up.” It’s one of those urban myths that gets passed around, and around, and around, and it’s used to demean and discount sex workers and the work they do. Sex workers don’t pay taxes, sex workers don’t contribute to the common good, sex workers work outside the system. The reality is sex workers do pay taxes. Sex workers pay a lot…