Swedish strippers under taxman's net

BEIJING, April 10 (Xin***) -- The Swedish Tax Authority is on the hunt for Internet strippers who fail to report their income.

Dag Hardyson, the Swedish Tax Authority's national project leader on Internet trade, said investigators were stepping up their hunt for those stripping live on Swedish websites in a bid to claw back lost tax revenues.

The Tax Authority estimates there are between 300 and 500 individuals who earn money this way. So far the agency has identified close to 200 people.

Hardyson and his team made regular visits to porn sites as they tried to trace the tax-dodging strippers.

"We had to do some manual work as well. We identified the websites, then we visited the websites. We looked at the girls and then downloaded their contact information and their pictures," Hardyson said.

Investigators charged with surfing the web and *** new visits to the sites every week found that the frequency of tax evasion was "an increasing problem."

In Sweden, the business is entirely legal, but requires those offering the service to register for a corporate taxation certificate, as well as maintain records of expenses and income. It is estimated that the turnover for the business as a whole is almost 500,000 US dollars and that the state therefore loses out on revenue of up to 250,000 dollars.

(Agencies)