Toronto Sun:
Financial confusion in the sex trade
Monday, July 10th/06
By LINDA LEATHERDALE S&M (Sex and Money Column)
When I was a naive teenager growing up in Orillia, I’d tell my Toronto boyfriends, “pick me up on Jarvis Street.”
For years, I couldn’t understand the snickers such an invitation would evoke. After all, picking me up a block away from my home spared these suitors a grilling from my strict dad.
It wasn’t until I moved to the Big Smoke that I got it.
Jarvis Street is home to ladies of the night, who make their living from the “worlds oldest profession.” Trust me, it’s not a career I’d consider.
It wasn’t until I was asked while on a radio talk show if prostitution should be legalized that I gave it a second thought.
Valerie Scott, a Toronto hooker who’s been around the block a few times, has taken her fight to Ottawa to make prostitution a safer and healthier career.
How? As Scott, executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC), explains: “We don’t want prostitution legalized, we want it decriminalized.”
Then she explained something that blew my mind.
Under our convoluted laws, it’s perfectly legal for a horny dude to hire Valerie through an escort service (as long as the hiring’s done on a land line and not a cell phone, which is considered public airways) and for her to go to his rented room, even his house, and have sex for money. The cost can vary from $150 an hour to $1,000, depending on the servicing.
But, Valerie cannot invite a client to her home to have sex. That’s considered running a common bawdy house, and that’s illegal. If caught, Valerie says, “you’ll be lucky to be left with your purse.” Not only are bank accounts seized and frozen, but if found guilty you can face up to two years in jail. It’s also illegal to walk Jarvis Street or any other street and solicit or communicate sex for money.
To prove how ridiculous Canada’s prostitution laws are, SPOC sent 308 chocolate coins to MPs in Ottawa last Christmas, with a note congratulating them on becoming “a pimp” just by accepting the gift.
Valerie claims legalization of prostitution, as in the Netherlands and Australia’s Victoria state, has led to a ghetto of low-paying jobs for prostitutes, while pimps and governments get rich. But decriminalization, as in New Zealand and Australia’s New South Wales state, has made prostitution a safer, healthier and more financially-rewarding career.
She says hookers could then work out of their bedrooms in the safety of their homes and with co-workers, which avoids the threat of gang rapes and violent sex acts.
There are also tax benefits, because the bedroom, with its satin sheets and other boudoir trappings, becomes tax deductible. Tax accountant Steve Ranot of Marmer Penner explains: “If she’s self-employed, she could write off a portion of the home used for business purposes, plus rent, utilities, property taxes, etc.”
Ranot also says that if a hooker is an employee of an escort service, she’d be smart to get her employer to sign a T-2200A form, which indicates to the Canada Revenue Agency that she’s required to use her home for business. Write-offs then would also be allowed.
Bottom-line is, there’s confusion in the sex trade, and that’s why many of these professionals live and work in the underground economy.
Valerie says since sex for money is not illegal — for years she’s faithfully filed a tax return and written off a variety of costs — from breast implants to condoms and sexy outfits.
Other sex professionals are terrified to file a tax return — and by not doing so they’re missing out on investing in RRSPs, taking advantage of Ottawa’s Home Buyers Plan, and other options.
“We’re an industry that needs financial advice,” agrees Valerie, who adds hookers can earn anywhere from $40,000 a year to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hmmm. Financial planning for the sex trade. That gives a whole new meaning to “let me whip your finances into shape.”
You can call Linda Leatherdale at (416) 947-2332 or e-mail at linda.leatherdale@tor.sunpub.com