Berlin plans to levy a flat rate daily tax on prostitutes from April to raise some extra revenues for its strained finances.
Following a model used by Cologne, which collected over $1 million (514,000 pounds) last year with its own flat tax, the German capital plans to tax prostitutes 30 euros (20 pounds) per working day. Berlin has rising debts of more than 60 billion euros.
Prostitution is legal in most places in Germany and sex workers are required to pay income tax as well as value-added tax (VAT). However, tax collectors have long suspected their income and VAT was not being fully reported on tax returns.
Local leaders in the Verdi service sector union have warned that the 30-euro tax will push up prices in Berlin, Germany's biggest metropolis with some 3.4 million inhabitants.
"The prostitutes will have no choice other than to pass the cost on to the customers,", Verdi spokesman Andreas Sander was quoted as saying in German daily newspaper Bild.
Katharina Cetin, of the prostitute support organisation Hydra, said sex workers earn less than city leaders estimate.
"The income level here in Berlin is rather low," she said. "A daily tax rate of 10 to 15 euros would be more appropriate."
Cologne, home to roughly 1 million, has been a worldwide pioneer in taxing prostitution at a flat rate of 150 euros per month. It earned 828,000 euros in 2006 after 790,000 euros when the "pleasure tax" on sex services was first levied in 2005.
