Re: Senator seeks tax on pimps, prostitutes
There was a very funny "exposé" on Italian TV about the situation prostitutes face here: prostitution itself has been "decriminalized" while "exploitation of prostitution" (i.e, pimping. bordellos) remains illegal. However, prostitutes are not exactly "legal", either, in the maze of Italian tax and work regulations.
"The Hyenas" which is 2 parts "60 Minutes", 1 part The Daily Show, with some Monty Python and Candid Camera mixed in (if you can get your head around that!) sent a (guy) reporter in drag with a hidden camera to go around to all the local bureaucracies to put himself "in regola", that is, to get squared away legally with tax authorities, pension, business license, etc. for his 'job' as a transsexual prostitute.
Hilarity ensues.
http://www.iene.mediaset.it/programma/2006/02/15/puntata.shtml
third clip from the bottom .. "una prostituta in regola"; pick DSL cause the sound will be better and reading the clearer subtitles might help you some. Even though you may not comprehend most of it, it may be worth it for the people's reactions (even though they blur out the faces, due to Italy's strict 'privacy' laws).
It starts out with a news article about the Italian IRS going after a madam for not paying taxes.. so the "Iene" decide to investigate what it would take to sign up as a legit tax-paying business entity. First 'she' goes to get her partita IVA (business tax ID#), but they don't know how to classify her, so they end up suggesting the category "other family services"..
Then "she" has to go to the local sort of city chamber of commerce to register her business, and there they suggest "masseuse"..
The pension people are the easiest, as long as you pay into the system (like Social Security).. She explains how she's worried about her retirement because, you know, a girl only has so much time in this business! The clerk is sympathetic to her plight.
Then finally to the police to get a street vendor's license ("occupazione di suolo/spazio pubblico" -- public space occupancy permit)... where the officials are more scolding.. she tries to explain.. "scarico/carico" (pickup & deliveries..).
At the end of the clip she tells a (real) prospective client that she'll go with him for €50 plus tax (IVA).. who should she make out the invoice to? [ALL transactions are supposed to have either a fiscal receipt or an invoice and sales tax added]. The client's response: "Ma intestala a 'sto cazzo!" -bleeeep!- ("make it out to my prick!") and drives off...