Italy Extends 25% ‘Ethical Tax’ to OnlyFans Creators Under Flat-Rate Regime

It's not a good day for OnlyFans creators in Italy, who are now facing a massive new tax bill.

Italy’s tax authority has confirmed that a 25% surcharge known as the tassa etica, or “ethical tax,” applies not only to traditional adult-industry businesses but also to digital creators operating under the country’s simplified flat-rate tax system, a move that could affect thousands of online workers earning income from explicit content.

The clarification, issued by the Agenzia delle Entrate in November 2025, revives a provision first introduced through Law 266/2005. The measure was originally aimed at businesses involved in the production, distribution, sale, or representation of pornographic material or content deemed to encourage violence. For years, it was largely associated with more traditional parts of the adult sector, including film producers, erotic shops, and adult entertainment venues.

The latest interpretation extends that framework to freelancers in Italy’s regime forfettario, the flat-rate tax regime used by many self-employed workers and small business operators. In practice, that means creators who sell explicit material on platforms such as OnlyFans may now be required to pay the additional 25% levy on the share of their income classified as pornographic. This really hurts the larger creators, who then pay an additional 25%-60% of their earnings to management companies.

Wanted in Rome reported that Italy has about 85,000 OnlyFans creators, with more than 45,000 of them operating under the forfettario system. Those figures have heightened concern about the broader impact of the ruling on the creator economy, particularly for small digital workers who had not previously been treated as part of the traditional adult business sector.

The surcharge does not apply automatically to all creator earnings. Under the guidance cited by Italian media, it applies only to the portion of revenue generated by pornographic content. For workers in the flat-rate system, that requires first calculating the taxable base under forfettario rules and then determining what share of that income comes from explicit material.

That distinction has become one of the most disputed aspects of the policy. Italian authorities indicated that assessments will be made on a case-by-case basis, leaving creators whose work falls between explicit and non-explicit categories uncertain. The result is a gray area for mixed-content accounts, where subscription income, tips, and custom content may not be easily separated.

The ruling has also reopened a wider debate over the place of moral judgment in tax policy. Critics argue that the surcharge penalizes legal labor based on content rather than business structure or earnings, creating unequal tax treatment for workers earning similar amounts in very different fields. Some political voices in Italy have already suggested revising or scrapping the tax to reflect the realities of the modern creator economy.

Italy’s approach remains unusual internationally. Other countries regulate or tax the adult sector in different ways, often through licensing costs, platform rules, or restrictions on distribution. What distinguishes the Italian system is that it imposes a direct income-based surcharge on those producing adult content, and now appears to extend that surcharge to individual digital creators using a simplified personal tax regime.

The latest development comes as adult-content taxation and platform liability are drawing wider scrutiny across Europe. In a separate 2023 ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that OnlyFans operator Fenix was liable for VAT on the full amount paid by subscribers, not just on the platform’s 20% commission. That case dealt with platform taxation rather than creator income, but it underscored the growing attention regulators are paying to the economics of digital adult content.

Facing this new, huge tax bill, many six-figure-a-month OnlyFans creators are looking at other options, which could mean moving to another country altogether.