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The German city of Bonn has reportedly introduced “sex tax” meters for street prostitutes.
Prostitutes working on the streets of the erstwhile West German capital would now have to buy a ticket from converted roadside vending machines before starting their working “day” — prostitution is legal in Bonn between 8.15 p.m. and 6 a.m.
A night’s ticket will set a sex worker back £5.30, irrespective of the number of clients they have, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Like parking meters, the vending machines — that once dispensed tickets to the city’s drivers — also tell users the times of day when a ticket is necessary: in this case between 8.15 p.m. and 6 a.m., Monday to Sunday.
If a police officer catches a sex worker without ticket, they will be fined or banned from working, the newspaper said.
Ms Monika Frombgen, a spokeswoman for Bonn city council, said the ticket machines would bring street prostitutes into fiscal line with their peers in registered sex establishments.
“This is an act of tax fairness. Prostitutes in fixed establishments such as brothels and sauna clubs already pay tax,” she was quoted by the British newspaper as saying.
Some 200 prostitutes work in Bonn. This is the first time tax tickets have been sold on the streets in Germany.
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