Hungary solicits tax favours

Berlin: The Hungarian tax office is turning the world's oldest profession into its newest money-spinner.

The office is to encourage prostitutes to sign up as officially-licensed "entrepreneurs".

This move comes as the Hungarian government, faced with an escalating budget deficit, cracks down on its black economy. Agnes Bakonyi, a tax office spokeswoman, said prostitution in Hungary generated an estimated £500 million (Dh3.7 billion) last year.

Under the new scheme, the Hungarian tax office is to provide sex workers with help in bookkeeping and courses on legal issues. In return, the working girls and boys will pay tax and social security.

Agnes Foldi, head of the Hungarian Prostitutes' Interests Protection Association, said the pilot scheme has been five times oversubscribed. "Our aim is to make sex work become accepted as any other job," she said.