THE Australian Taxation Office will be asked to crack down on more than 600 illegal brothels and massage parlours in NSW this week.

A list identifying the illegal premises will be handed to ATO officers attending a meeting on Thursday with the Adult Business Association (ABA), which represents the legal sex industry.

The ABA has used private investigators to compile the list, which includes the names, addresses and phone numbers of illegal operators.

Chris Seage, a consultant to the ABA, told The Sunday Telegraph yesterday legal brothels were increasingly frustrated by the growth of operators who had no council approval.

``The legal industry pays its taxes; some pay millions of dollars in taxes of various types to governments,'' Mr Seage, a former tax officer, said. ``The illegals don't.''

Mr Seage said he would hand over a list of more than 600 illegal operators in NSW to tax officials at a meeting at Ku-ring-gai Council this Thursday.

``We have had our own private investigators working on it for six months,'' he said. ``If the tax office can't work on that, there's something wrong.''

In the past year, the ABA has been meeting regularly with tax investigators, who have launched a nationwide crackdown on sex workers and businesses.

Hurstville Council said on Friday it had used private investigators to gather evidence in brothels.

``They cost between $800 and $900 per visit,'' said Paul Spyve, the council's customer relations manager. ``It's not something we use a lot.''

Hornsby and Marrickville councils said they had also used investigators.