{"id":281493,"date":"2025-04-14T09:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/in-ukraine-porn-is-illegal-so-why-are-its-creators-paying-taxes\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T09:49:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:49:05","slug":"in-ukraine-porn-is-illegal-so-why-are-its-creators-paying-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/in-ukraine-porn-is-illegal-so-why-are-its-creators-paying-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"In Ukraine, Porn Is Illegal. So Why Are Its Creators Paying Taxes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/26\/multimedia\/00int-ukraine-pronography-01-kmcj\/00int-ukraine-pronography-01-kmcj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In Ukraine, Porn Is Illegal. So Why Are Its Creators Paying Taxes?\" title=\"In Ukraine, Porn Is Illegal. So Why Are Its Creators Paying Taxes?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As Ukraine contends with a war raging on its eastern front and Russian attacks on its cities, one lawmaker is working on something that he says could help the nation: legalizing pornography.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yaroslav Zhelezniak, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament\u2019s finance committee, is leading a push to ditch what he sees as outdated Soviet-era legislation that bans the possession, production and distribution of pornography.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Doing so, he said, would remedy what he and people making pornographic content say is an unfair contradiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Violations of Ukraine\u2019s laws on pornography \u2014 Article 301 of the criminal code \u2014 are punishable by three to five years in prison. But Ukraine\u2019s financial authorities have been collecting taxes from creators on websites known for adult content like OnlyFans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That means that people who pay taxes on the pornography they produce can be prosecuted for it. \u201cIt\u2019s absurd,\u201d Mr. Zhelezniak said, especially \u201cin the midst of a full-scale war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He also sees another benefit for Ukraine in changing the law. It would increase tax revenue, he said, since more pornography creators would be willing to declare their earnings \u2014 a boost for an economy struggling under the demands of a war that has ground on for over three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need these funds for our military,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pornography creators say it is only fair that their work be decriminalized given that they are being asked to contribute to the tax rolls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cExcuse me? Your \u2018morals\u2019 allow you to take our tax money?\u201d said Karina, 30, who has been making sexually explicit content for five years. But \u201cyour morals allow you to imprison people for selling pictures of their own bodies?\u201d She added in exasperation: \u201cI have no words.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Karina and other creators selling erotic images on OnlyFans who were interviewed for this article asked to be identified only by their first names, for fear of arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ukraine\u2019s Article 301 is stricter than the pornography laws in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/brdo.com.ua\/en\/news\/pornobarometr-priorytety-pravoohorontsiv-pid-chas-povnomasshtabnoyi-vijny-abo-yak-ukrayintsiv-peresliduyut-za-pornografiyu-u-2024-rotsi\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">most other European countries<\/a>, the United States and Russia, and even prohibits sending or receiving nude photos between two consenting adults. Efforts to amend it have been in the works for years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Zhelezniak spent more than a year drafting and gathering support for the bill to decriminalize pornography, an effort that assumed greater urgency in the fall of 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That is when the head of Parliament\u2019s finance committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, said tax authorities had learned that Ukrainians on OnlyFans were making \u201csignificant\u201d income \u2014 $4 million in one case, $3 million in another. Those performers must pay taxes, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Zhelezniak <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/babel.ua\/en\/news\/112544-mps-registered-a-new-draft-law-on-the-decriminalization-of-porn\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">registered<\/a> a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/itd.rada.gov.ua\/billInfo\/Bills\/Card\/45187\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">draft law<\/a> in November. It drew little attention until December, when Mr. Hetmantsev <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/getmantsevdanil\/8377\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> that 350 OnlyFans models had filed declarations to collectively pay around $1.6 million in taxes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is very important money for the country in the war and we are grateful to the girls for their responsible position and contribution to the victory,\u201d he <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/getmantsevdanil\/8377\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on Telegram<\/a>. Mr. Hetmantsev said he supported the draft law because \u201cthe festival of hypocrisy, when society \u2018morally condemns\u2019 with one hand and takes money for the army with the other,\u201d must end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bill \u2014 co-signed by 26 other lawmakers, including many from President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s party \u2014 has already been endorsed by Parliament\u2019s Law Enforcement committee. It now awaits a vote in Parliament, and Mr. Zhelezniak told a recent event that he has secured 210 out of the necessary 226 votes to pass. But not everyone is on board.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yulia Tymoshenko, an opposition leader, has criticized the appropriateness of the bill in wartime. \u201cWhat are you guys doing?\u201d she <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/office_ua\/5242\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said in Parliament<\/a>. \u201cStart living and working for the sake of Ukraine and for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhivskyi, also opposed it, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/ukranews.com\/ua\/news\/1058993-natspolitsiya-proty-dekryminalizatsiyi-porno\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">arguing<\/a> that legalization would \u201chave a negative impact on moral values.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Karina insists that her content is harmless. \u201cI take photos of myself and sell them,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s it. I don\u2019t hurt anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Karina said she got a letter from the tax authorities in October saying she owed money on $3.1 million in OnlyFans earnings from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI didn\u2019t argue \u2014 I just did it,\u201d she said. But even after paying $450,000 in taxes from her savings, she added, \u201cI had this nagging feeling that it wasn\u2019t going to end there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Weeks later, her house was raided and her laptop seized. Now she is under investigation on suspicion of violating Article 301, according to her lawyer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m completely disillusioned with my country,\u201d Karina said. \u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re still in the U.S.S.R., where they pretended sex didn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lesya Mykhailenko, her tax attorney, said several clients had moved abroad for fear of jail time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new law would not alter punishments for prostitution, human trafficking and images of child sexual abuse. But unlike those, Ms. Mykhailenko said, her clients\u2019 actions are victimless \u2014 and involve consent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEither declare that this industry is immoral and ban it entirely, or acknowledge that it\u2019s not and decriminalize it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe government can\u2019t have it both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Svitlana, 38, is another client of Ms. Mykhailenko\u2019s and a friend of Karina\u2019s. She started webcam modeling at 19, first with topless video chats. Now she records sex videos with her husband to post on OnlyFans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m not ashamed,\u201d she said, adamant that what she does is her choice alone. She enjoys the work, its flexible schedule and the money. In a good month, Svitlana said, she can make around $100,000. She\u2019s proud to have 630,000 fans on OnlyFans, who pay for content \u201cthey want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When she got a letter from the tax authorities saying she had 15 days to pay tax on about $4 million in OnlyFans income, Svitlana said she \u201chappily\u201d obliged to support the country. She has been donating to the military since the war began, Svitlana said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The local tax office helped Svitlana file her declaration. And for weeks, everything seemed fine. Then Karina called to say that her house had been raided. \u201cWe\u2019re in trouble,\u201d she told her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Svitlana said she feared her house would be next, so she and her husband deleted videos, removed sex toys \u2014 anything to hide their work. \u201cWe were scared,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A knock on the door finally came last month, Svitlana said, along with a warrant saying she too was now under investigation on suspicion of violating Article 301.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An estimated <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/brdo.com.ua\/en\/news\/dekryminalizatsiya-pornografiyi-mozhe-prynesty-byudzhetu-500-mln-grn-na-oboronu\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">3,500 OnlyFans<\/a> creators are working in Ukraine, although it is not clear how many are making content that would constitute pornography under Ukrainian law. (Much, but not all, of the content on OnlyFans is sexually explicit.) On OnlyFans alone, Ukrainians earned $123 million between 2020 and 2022, according to Mr. Zhelezniak, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zheleznyak.y\/posts\/pfbid0hHWzkE75oQpkynwnWkJFeBa3JwucQ7XwihghpxVEmwpsVCQuPg9Hkn1kutPEK8Twl\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">citing data<\/a> from the State Tax Service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Decriminalizing pornography could bring in around $12.3 million in taxes annually, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/brdo.com.ua\/en\/news\/dekryminalizatsiya-pornografiyi-mozhe-prynesty-byudzhetu-500-mln-grn-na-oboronu\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">according to the Better Regulation Delivery Office<\/a>, an E.U.-funded think tank in Ukraine. That would be enough to buy 24,000 FPV drones or support Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption court for a year, it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Instead, prosecutors brought nearly 1,400 cases under Article 301 to court in 2024 \u2014 up from 757 the year earlier \u2014 which the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/brdo.com.ua\/en\/news\/dekryminalizatsiya-pornografiyi-mozhe-prynesty-byudzhetu-500-mln-grn-na-oboronu\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Better Regulation Delivery Office<\/a> called an \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/brdo.com.ua\/en\/news\/pornobarometr-priorytety-pravoohorontsiv-pid-chas-povnomasshtabnoyi-vijny-abo-yak-ukrayintsiv-peresliduyut-za-pornografiyu-u-2024-rotsi\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">inappropriate<\/a>\u201d allocation of resources during war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It takes time to change minds, said Mr. Zhelezniak, 35. He recounted breaking out his iPad to give older colleagues in Parliament who thought pornography appeared only in magazines a primer on \u201cwhat porn means in this century.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While he can see the humor in what he\u2019s doing and will sometimes joke about it with colleagues, the reality, Mr. Zhelezniak said, \u201cis no laughing matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Nataliia Novosolova<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/14\/world\/europe\/ukraine-pornography-onlyfans.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Ukraine contends with a war raging on its eastern front and Russian attacks on its cities, one lawmaker is working on something that he says could help the nation: legalizing pornography. Yaroslav Zhelezniak, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament\u2019s finance committee, is leading a push to ditch what he sees as outdated Soviet-era legislation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/26\/multimedia\/00int-ukraine-pronography-01-kmcj\/00int-ukraine-pronography-01-kmcj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[359,896,4406,137130,77780,4477,137131,32714,202,1830,197703,1130,197704],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281495,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281493\/revisions\/281495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}