14 February 2007

AMSTERDAM — The entertainment at the Sexyland peep show in Amsterdam’s Red Light District can also be defined as a “theatre performance”.

This means that Sexyland, that used to be owned by the controversial entertainment entrepreneur Charles Geerts, can be waived the regular 19 percent VAT, and obliged to pay only the “cultural institution” rate of 6 percent, the court of Amsterdam ruled.

According to current owner Jan Otten, owner of the  Casa Rosso erotic theatre, the court’s decision marks the end of a struggle that lasted for six years, De Volkskrant writes.

Sexyland has two stages with a girl dancing on each, replaced by a new girl every four minutes. Around the dance hall, fifteen individual cabins are scattered, providing a view of the stages and a row of video screens showing porn films.

Many other businesses involved in the sex industry profit from the flexible tax system, researcher René van der Paardt says. Sex cinemas, for example, have been paying the same low taxes as regular cinemas for a long time already.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news