Free sex to protest tax hike

An Austrian brothel is offering a summer special competitors will find hard to match — free sex. The owner says it's his way of protesting a tax squeeze.

"Effective immediately: Free Entrance! Free Drinks! Free Sex!" the Pascha bordello writes on its website.

The Oesterreich daily quotes owner Hermann Mueller as saying he will pay the women to make up for the money they would normally earn from clients. A woman answering the telephone at the establishment confirmed the offer but refused to identify herself.

Prostitution in Austria is legal but regulated. Mueller, who runs other brothels in Germany and Austria, says he is pushing back against what he says is unfair taxation of nearly 4 million euros (more than $5 million) in the past decade.