Ukraine is considering legalising pornography to raise up to $25 million in annual taxes, reduce corruption and help fund its war effort, a report has claimed.
Ukraine is considering legalising its pornography industry and bringing it into the formal tax system as it looks for additional revenue to support the country’s war effort, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
The proposal is aimed not only at generating tax income but also at addressing corruption and the legal contradictions faced by thousands of people earning money from adult content.
Pornography production, distribution and possession are currently illegal in Ukraine and can carry a prison sentence of up to seven years.
However, the report said the country has been unable to eliminate a large and lucrative adult-content industry, with many creators operating online, from abroad or through arrangements designed to avoid the existing restrictions.
Legalising Porn Could Generate $25 Million A Year In Ukraine
Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who chairs Parliament’s finance committee, is leading the push to legalise pornography. A bill co-authored by him has already passed its first vote in Parliament in July and is awaiting a second reading.
Zhelezniak estimates that legalising and taxing the industry could generate up to $25 million annually for the Ukrainian government.
While that would be a small amount compared with Ukraine’s stated annual defence requirement of around $120 billion, he estimates it could be enough to fund approximately 30,000 drones.
The report said supporters also believe legalisation could reduce corruption by removing the criminal status of an industry that already exists on a substantial scale.
Zhelezniak described the current situation as a contradiction because authorities are demanding taxes from people whose underlying activity remains illegal.
Tax Payments Create Legal Contradiction
The issue became more prominent after Ukrainian tax authorities obtained information from Fenix International, the UK-based parent company of OnlyFans.
According to figures cited in the report, 7,900 Ukrainians earned more than $131 million from OnlyFans in 2023. That created millions of dollars in potential tax liabilities.
Authorities subsequently began sending letters to creators, some of whom were earning more than $20,000 a month. However, declaring that income could also expose them to accusations of illegally producing pornography.
Zhelezniak said people were effectively being forced to choose between not paying taxes and facing tax-related criminal charges, or paying taxes and potentially admitting to activity prohibited by Ukraine’s pornography laws.
Crackdowns And Allegations Of Corruption
The report also highlighted allegations that the existing system has created opportunities for corruption.
Ukrainian authorities had previously turned a blind eye to parts of the industry, while some studios allegedly operated with the involvement of corrupt law-enforcement officials.
The office of Ukraine’s general prosecutor said in May that police departments in three regions had each been receiving more than $20,000 a month in bribes, according to the report.
The crackdown also affected individual creators.
Svitlana Dvornikova, an OnlyFans creator with around one million subscribers, told the report that police searched her home while she was preparing her daughter for school. Officers seized electronic devices and around $200,000 in cash that she said she had kept aside to pay taxes.
Dvornikova alleged that officers offered to take half the money as a bribe. She said she refused.
Creators Move Abroad To Continue Work
The legal uncertainty has pushed hundreds of Ukrainian OnlyFans creators to move abroad or produce content outside Ukraine.
Dvornikova herself travels to rented villas in France or Spain to stream content because producing pornography inside Ukraine could expose her to criminal prosecution.
Those who remain in Ukraine have developed workarounds.
The report described a business in Lviv operated by Iryna Mosiychuk that presents itself as a consulting company but houses webcam studios used by several dozen models.
Mosiychuk said her models earn between $2,000 and $7,000 a month and that she currently pays around $5,000 in taxes each month.
She has argued that the tax contribution could increase substantially if the industry were legally recognised.
The war has also directly affected such operations. Models working from the Lviv studios monitor air-raid alerts and sometimes have to abandon livestreams and head to bomb shelters.
