In Ukraine, bill to legalize pornography awaits second reading — NDTV World
In Ukraine, a bill to legalize pornography, co-authored by parliament’s Financial Committee Chair Yaroslav Zhelezniak, passed its first reading in July and is awaiting a second reading. As NDTV World reports, citing The Wall Street Journal, bringing the adult-content industry into the legal sphere could generate up to $25 million in tax revenue.
Taxes and drones
According to Zhelezniak’s estimate, this amount could be enough to finance up to 30,000 drones for defense needs in the war against Russian aggression. Currently, the production, storage, or distribution of pornography in Ukraine is illegal and may be punishable by up to seven years in prison.
At the same time, tax authorities have begun demanding tax payments from adult-content creators. According to data cited by the WSJ, 7,900 Ukrainians earned more than $131 million through OnlyFans in 2023. The data were provided by the platform’s parent company, Fenix International, according to the newspaper.
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Risks for creators
Zhelezniak stated that creators were faced with a choice: not pay taxes and risk criminal liability for doing so, or declare their income and face accusations of violating pornography laws. According to the publication, some people who declared their income later received letters from Kyiv accusing them of tax evasion and illegal production of adult content.
OnlyFans creator Svitlana Dvornikova told the WSJ that police searched her home, seizing $20,000 in cash, a laptop, and hard drives. According to her, law enforcement officers offered her the option of paying a bribe to make the case disappear, but she refused. According to the newspaper, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine identified cases in which officials in three regions allegedly received bribes of up to $20,000.
After a criminal case was opened, Dvornikova submitted a petition that was published on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s website. She stated that she had paid nearly $900,000 in taxes; according to the WSJ, the petition collected more than 25,000 signatures in a week. Zelenskyy later said that parliament would consider the proposal to legalize pornography.
