NATION : Prostitution Ruled Taxable
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LONDON — The oldest profession is a taxable profession, the Court of Appeal ruled today, rejecting a woman’s argument that the government was not entitled to share her immoral earnings.
“The tax man is a pimp and the government is a pimp,” Marion Aken, also known as Miss Whiplash or Lindi St. Claire, said outside court.
Not so, the judges held.
“As regards the propriety of the Inland Revenue seeking to recover the proceeds by tax of prostitution, the revenue authorities are merely looking at the accomplished fact of profits from trade,” Lord Justice Fox said in giving the court’s opinion.
Lord Justice Parker added: “There is no doubt that prostitution is a trade.”
Aken was ordered to pay $99,340, plus the government’s legal costs in responding to her appeal.
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