OnlyFans, Taxes And Jail: Why Ukraine Wants To Legalise Pornography

Ukraine is weighing whether to legalise and tax its adult-content industry as it searches for additional revenue to support its war effort against Russia. A bill backed by lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak could generate up to $25 million a year, he estimates, with the potential revenue enough to finance around 30,000 military drones.

The proposal comes as the industry already operates largely underground and content creators face a legal contradiction: tax authorities are seeking income from their online earnings even though pornography remains criminalised under Ukrainian law. The legislation has passed its first reading and is awaiting further consideration.

Why Is Ukraine Considering Legalising Pornography?

Ukraine is weighing this plans as it looks for additional revenue to support the war against Russia, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The proposal could generate enough money to pay for roughly 30,000 drones.

A bill aimed at legalising pornography has already passed its first reading in Parliament and is now awaiting a second. Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who heads Parliament’s finance committee and helped draft the legislation, estimates that taxes on the industry could bring in as much as $25 million each year.

The expected tax receipts would be relatively small when set against Ukraine’s wider wartime expenditure. The government estimates that about $120 billion is required each year for defence, but lawmakers argue that even a limited new source of revenue could contribute towards essential military supplies.

Zhelezniak, who heads Parliament’s finance committee and helped draft the bill, estimates that annual tax revenues of up to $25 million from the industry could be enough to cover the cost of roughly 30,000 drones.

What Does Ukraine’s Law Say About Pornography?

Under Ukraine's current framework, production, possession and distribution of pornography are criminal offences, with penalties that can reach seven years in prison. Yet Ukrainian tax authorities have increasingly sought taxes from creators earning through platforms such as OnlyFans.

Around 7,900 Ukrainian creators earned more than $131 million through OnlyFans in 2023, according to data from Fenix International, the platform's UK-based parent company.

The reports describe Dvornikova as an OnlyFans creator who said she had paid nearly $900,000 in taxes and later faced legal trouble. She also launched a petition calling for decriminalisation.

The petition reportedly received more than 25,000 signatures in a week, after which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Parliament would consider the proposed legislation.

"These women either don’t pay taxes and face criminal charges for that, or they pay taxes and get charged with violating pornography laws,” Zhelezniak, who chairs the finance committee in Ukraine’s Parliament, told the WSJ. “It’s a tragicomic situation.”

Why Are OnlyFans Creators Caught Between Taxes And Prosecution?

Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, data from OnlyFans’ parent company, Fenix International, showed that 7,900 Ukrainians earned more than $131 million through the platform in 2023, according to the WSJ.

Kyiv subsequently sent letters to content creators who had submitted tax declarations, warning them that they could face charges for tax evasion and the illegal production of adult content.

One of the women, Svitlana Dvornikova, told the WSJ that police raided her home one morning as she was preparing her daughter for school. The officers confiscated $20,000 in cash along with her laptop and hard drives.

Dvornikova said the police had a list containing the names of webcam models and their home addresses. According to her, the officers told her she could pay a bribe to prevent the case from being pursued, but she refused.

Another woman described a similar experience, saying police searched her apartment before she was later called to appear in court. She did not attend the hearing because she feared being pressured into paying a bribe.

“This is a victimless crime,” Lesia Mykhalenko, a tax lawyer who has represented more than 100 OnlyFans models, told the WSJ. “It unnecessarily burdens the legal system at a time when we should be focused on defending the country.”

For Kyiv, the move is being considered as the government looks for more revenue at home while remaining heavily dependent on foreign military and financial support. Although the estimated $25 million would cover only a small share of Ukraine’s defence requirements, proponents believe legalising an industry that already operates on a large scale could bring part of its underground economy into the formal system and generate additional money for the war.

Co-authored by Zhelezniak, the bill to legalise pornography in Ukraine cleared its first parliamentary reading in July and is now awaiting a second reading.

If passed, the legislation would shift consensual adult content from a criminal-law issue towards a regulated economic activity. That could allow creators and businesses to operate more openly, report their earnings and pay taxes without simultaneously exposing themselves to prosecution simply for producing adult material. Supporters also argue that formalising the sector could reduce the scope for corruption and bring more of its revenue into the state system.

However, the proposed changes would not remove restrictions on other forms of illegal sexual content. Material involving minors, non-consensual content and other prohibited forms of pornography would remain subject to criminal penalties.