While some grown men are sent to therapy for pretending to be little girls, Xavier Von Erck, Founder of Perverted Justice, has turned his pretend time into a $120,000-a-year payday.

Best known for helping trap some of America's dumbest sexual predators on NBC's "Dateline," the goateed community college dropout is now reportedly asking Uncle Sam to make his controversial business tax exempt!

Radar says Von Erck filed an application with the IRS, the three-man operation took in $802,820 last year -- just from their work with the TV news magazine. They hope to snag another $2 million in '08, despite rumors that the popular "To Catch a Predator" series may get axed in the wake of charges from a former producer that the program violated "numerous journalistic ethical standards."

Thank heaven for protecting little girls!