Dutch Sex Workers Can Expect Visit from Tax Collector

AMSTERDAM (CBS/AP) Workers in the world's oldest profession are about to get a lesson in the harsh reality of Europe's new age of austerity.

The Dutch government has warned prostitutes who advertise their wares in the famed windows of Amsterdam's red light district to expect a business-only visit from the taxman.

Prostitution has flourished in Amsterdam since the 1600s, when the Netherlands was a major naval power and sailors swaggered into the port looking for a good time. The country legalized the practice a decade ago, but authorities are only now getting around to looking to sex workers for taxes.

"We began at the larger places, the brothels, so now we're moving on to the window landlords and the ladies," said Janneke Verheggen, spokeswoman for the country's Tax Service.

The move is meeting with little formal opposition, even among prostitutes - though some are skeptical it can be enforced. But it marks yet another shift away from the permissive attitudes that once prevailed in the Netherlands.

"It's a good thing that they're doing this," said Samantha, a statuesque blond Dutchwoman in a white leather dress who offers her services from behind one of the hundreds of red-curtained windows in the heart of the city's ancient center. "It's a job like any other and we should pay taxes."

She said she has been paying her share for years and felt she was competing on unequal terms with women who didn't, many of them immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Prostitutes were told they would be audited in typically bureaucratic fashion, with a notice addressed "to landlords and window prostitutes in Amsterdam" published last week in the city's main newspaper.

"Agents of the Tax Service will walk through various elements of your business administration with you, such as prices, staffing, agendas and calendars," the notice said.