Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, stated that content creators on the OnlyFans platform can bring about UAH 1 billion to the budget per year. To realize this potential, according to him, it is necessary to stop political "pseudo-moralization" and resolve the issue of decriminalizing Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The head of the parliamentary finance committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, has sharply criticized the current policy towards adult content creators. He stressed that the state is spending millions on controlled purchases and criminal proceedings instead of legalizing the sector and receiving tax revenues, which he estimates at approximately UAH 1 billion per year.
Hetmantsev drew attention to the discrepancies between real income and declared amounts: according to his data, in 2023, 7,914 Ukrainians received income of about UAH 5 billion on the platform, while in 2024, only 152 individuals declared UAH 132.8 million in income from OnlyFans and paid more than UAH 13 million in tax. In the period 2020–2022, according to the head of the committee, content creators have tax debts of more than UAH 380 million.
The politician links the low level of legal taxation to the criminal status of adult content production — Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — and insists on the need for its decriminalization. In his opinion, the current practice, when the state simultaneously seeks to collect taxes and bring authors to criminal liability, is contradictory and ineffective.
According to statistics from the Prosecutor General's Office, in January-August 2025, law enforcement officers registered 1,464 criminal cases related to the creation or distribution of pornographic content. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, courts have issued 247 verdicts, in which 287 people were found guilty, but almost all of the convicted avoided actual imprisonment - their sentences were replaced with probation. Only ten people were supposed to serve actual prison terms, but these verdicts are still under appeal.
Hetmantsev also drew attention to the state's spending on forensic examinations in such cases. According to estimates, the average cost of examinations within one sentence is about UAH 11.3 thousand; total costs from 2022 could reach almost UAH 4.9 million. At the same time, experts receive, in particular, remuneration for viewing video materials, which, according to the author of the publication, looks like an inefficient use of budget funds in the fight for "morality."
A petition to decriminalize the production of adult content, Hetmantsev reminds, has already collected the required 25,000 signatures. Its author claims that she has paid over UAH 40 million in taxes, but at the same time has faced threats of criminal prosecution.
Hetmantsev calls on parliament to “not lie to itself” and to abandon rhetoric that, in his opinion, hinders the legalization of the industry and the filling of the state budget. He believes that effective fiscal policy in this segment can turn “underground” income into stable tax revenues, while protecting the rights and safety of content creators.
