Impractical tax

I refer to the report headlined 'Prostitutes taxed on wages of sin' (South China Morning Post, July 18).

Legitimate businesses pay taxes. Prostitution activities can be illegal in the SAR.

Prostitutes constantly face arrest and prosecution, whereas legitimate businesses expect protection from the police.

Given that prostitutes are not on an 'equal footing', why should they have to pay taxes?

This is not a realistic proposal. Prostitutes try to conceal their identity and will not be forthcoming about how much they earn. It would be impossible for the Inland Revenue Department to get precise information about their earnings.

A huge amount of manpower would have to be used to gather this information and it would be prohibitively expensive.