Berlin - Germany's Finance Minister Peer Stein wants prostitutes to pay a flat tax of 25 euros (about R236) a day, according to a report in Tuesday's edition of the daily newspaper Bild.
Sex workers would still file an annual tax declaration and, according to the number of clients, the tax authorities would either reimburse them part of the daily tax - or oblige them to pay more, said the paper.
The mass-circulation newspaper cited a finance ministry document that had been distributed to regional tax offices. Nobody at the ministry was available for comment.
Germany's regional authorities currently fix the daily tax rate imposed on sex workers.
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According to a survey by another German daily, Tagesspiegel, that can vary from 20 euros in several German states to the rate in Berlin, which is 30 euros.
Prostitution has been legal in Germany since the beginning of 2002, and prostitutes in theory have social security cover, but like taxation, the system does not work well in practice.
According to a 2003 report, the German taxman misses out on about 2 billion euros from prostitution.
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