Istat, prostitution and escorts have their own Ateco code. "Taken from EU regulations, only legal activities"

Prostitution and escort activities also have their own Ateco code. This is the result of the new Ateco 2025 classification developed by Istat, which has been in force since January and began to be used on 1 April. In division 96, which - Istat explained in the communiqué on the new codes issued in December - "has been completely restructured with new groups and classes", the code 96.99.92 on 'Meeting services and similar events', which includes: 'activities related to social life, e.g. activities of escorts, matchmaking and matrimonial agencies; provision or organisation of sexual services, organisation of prostitution events or management of prostitution venues; matchmaking and other speed networking activities'. The Ateco code is a classification system used to uniquely identify the economic activities of companies and self-employed persons.

According to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation in 2016 (15596), the activity of prostitution, if carried out habitually, is assimilable to self-employment, whereas if it is carried out, again autonomously, on an occasional basis, it falls into the category of miscellaneous income, with the consequence that, in both cases, the activity freely exercised gives rise to taxable income. It is a totally different matter in those criminally relevant cases of inducement, coercion or exploitation of the prostitution of others, in which the proceeds of the prostitution activity, even before being subject to tax, are, under the criminal code, entirely confiscable as the proceeds of crime.

Senator Alessandra Maiorino, deputy leader of the M5S group in the Senate, intervened on the issue in a note. 'If confirmed,' it reads, 'it would be serious if the tax authorities were to include the organisation of sexual services in the new Ateco codes. Because it is true that prostitution in Italy is not illegal, but all the activities of aiding, abetting, exploiting and inducing are. Exactly what the new classification regularises from a fiscal point of view. An orientation that is clearly in conflict with existing laws and on which I am tabling a question to Minister Urso. How is it possible to go so blatantly against existing laws? Who decided this? We are talking about activities that create a grey area, leaving room for exploitation and trafficking. We want explanations'.

The new Ateco 2025 classification developed by ISTAT, which provides a special code also for prostitution and escort activities, runs the risk of being in conflict with Italian law. This is what Codacons emphasises. The consumers' association recalls how the paid sex sector produces an estimated EUR 4.7 billion in undeclared business annually in Italy. "This is a particularly thorny issue. - explains president Carlo Rienzi - Prostitution in itself does not constitute a crime, if carried out autonomously and on a voluntary basis, and consequently it seems correct to subject the proceeds of this activity to taxation, as, moreover, reiterated by the Supreme Court in 2011. ISTAT's new Ateco code, however, being extended also to 'organisation of sexual services', 'organisation of events' and 'management of prostitution premises', stands in stark contrast to Italian law, which, while on the one hand does not prohibit prostitution, on the other hand provides for the crime of exploitation of prostitution, also understood as participation in the proceeds of prostitution (Supreme Court in 2018), punished with imprisonment of four to eight years and a fine of 5 thousand to 25 thousand euros. We are facing a fiscal short-circuit, with Istat regularising all prostitution-related activities, and the laws in force prohibiting the same activities,' Rienzi concludes.

The reality, as explained in this article, is more complex. It is not a legalisation of the world's oldest profession.