Paper short abstract:

To address the overlooked link between taxation and sex work, in this paper we explore how sex workers in three European countries with different legal and fiscal approaches to prostitution, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland, understand and negotiate tax policies and practices.

Paper long abstract:

To address the overlooked link between taxation and sex work, in this paper we explore how sex workers in three European countries with different legal and fiscal approaches to prostitution, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland, understand and negotiate tax policies and practices. We approach the taxation of prostitution as a vehicle for exploring the conditions under which sex workers are, or are not, legible to themselves and others as citizens with full rights. We bridge three bodies of scholarship: sex industry studies, critical taxation studies, and citizenship studies to address these interrelated questions: How can we advance our understanding of citizenship by looking at the tax experiences of sex workers? How can we further our understanding of taxation as a marker and maker of citizenship by looking at the experiences of sex workers? Empirically, we present one of the few studies to explore sex workers' perspectives on the tax regimes they operate within and how they negotiate the challenges they face in their quest for full citizenship. Drawing on interviews conducted in the three countries, we show how our participants make sense of and negotiate very different fiscal policies and practices, how these affect their sense of self and belonging, and the challenges they face on a daily basis in their confrontation with economic, housing and social exclusion.