The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv allowed investigators of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) to obtain information about all Ukrainians who are registered on the OnlyFans platform and receive income there. The court’s decision was accepted September 20.
The BES detectives gained access to data «on all citizens of Ukraine and other persons residing in Ukraine who have registered profiles (created accounts) on the OnlyFans platform, namely: surname, name, patronymic, date of birth, taxpayer registration number, as well as other information (data) regarding the creators of paid content available to the State Tax Service».
Upon receipt of this information, the BES began searches within the framework of a criminal case related to large-scale tax evasion (Article 212, part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Company lawyer «You have the right» Lesya Mykhailenko saidThe company says that searches are being conducted even in the homes of OnlyFans models who have already registered as sole proprietors, declared their income and paid taxes.
«Last week, the BES began to come with searches to those who had paid and declared their income. That is, according to this ruling, the BES took a list from the State Tax Service and is now working on a list of models from OnlyFans who have nothing to do with the case of July 2024,” she said.
The lawyer added that the problem is broader than it might seem at first glance. It can affect a much larger number of users, not just models who create adult content.
«Today, this applies to models on the OnlyFans platform, and tomorrow it will apply to creators on YouTube, TikTok bloggers, sellers on Etsy, Amazon, and others. Anyone who dares to tackle the issue of paying taxes»,” she said.
Earlier, Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Rada’s Tax Committee, noted that The tax service received information on the income of Ukrainian models OnlyFans. Later users of the platform started receiving demands to pay taxes.
Most of the models, having turned to lawyers, decided to voluntarily register as individual entrepreneurs and declare their income, but after the court ruling, this data was at the disposal of the BES.
MPs have already responded to the searches. Deputy Chairman of the Tax Committee Yaroslav Zheleznyak criticized such actions, calling the situation absurd, because it is abnormal for «to simultaneously demand that they pay taxes for porn and at the same time retain criminal liability for the production of». He also expressed hope that law enforcement would not prosecute models under Article 301 of the Criminal Code, which deals with the distribution and production of pornography.
Earlier, Danylo Hetmantsev stated that one of the OnlyFans models had declared income and paid over UAH 13.2 million in taxes to the budget. He emphasized that late payment of taxes cannot be a ground for initiating a criminal case.
Source: Economic Truth
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