Online Gaming Asset Tax May Be Coming Soon

[Dubh Aingeal]

It appears very likely that taxation of online games assets is inevitable.

From the article:

That's because game publishers may well in the not too distant future have to send the forms — which individuals receive when earning nonemployee income from companies or institutions — to virtual world players engaging in transactions for valuable items like Ultima Online castles, EverQuest weapons or Second Life currency, even when those players don't convert the assets into cash.

[BrassFusion]

Hah. Yeah right.

"If you haven't misspent hours battling an Arctic Ogre Lord near an Ice Dungeon or been equally profligate spending time reading the published works of the Internal Revenue Service," Dibbell's article began, "you probably haven't wondered whether the United States government will someday tax your virtual winnings from games played over the Internet. The real question is: Why hasn't it happened already?"

It hasn't happened already because it's retarded, first and foremost. Since virtual objects in games have no value (no value, NO value, for all you WoW people, I repeated it thrice), once a tax is imposed that 13-year-olds won't be able to afford, the "economies" will crash.

Many of those games have rules in their terms of service that forbid trading objects, services, and cash for any game items or currencies. If they try to impose a tax, those that don't will, also. No value = not relative to any real economy = not taxable.

I honestly can't believe this isn't referenced on Snopes. It sounds like such a load.

(no offense dubh, obviously i'm glad you posted it )

[Dubh Aingeal]

(no offense dubh, obviously i'm glad you posted it )

Non Taken Brass.

[pharoh]

This is gonna basicly be the same way that online shopping has taken form with taxes.....your asked: Did you make any online purchases? Me: No.

End of story.

[Dubh Aingeal]

This is gonna basicly be the same way that online shopping has taken form with taxes.....your asked: Did you make any online purchases? Me: No.

End of story.

I read somewhere and will need to see if I can find it, but thats going to change soon as well. Web shopping will gain tax based on where you live as well.

[Head Wreck]

so gamers are gonna get taxed if thier pharming, and if they are pharming they can get banned by certan liscence agreements

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

just because somthing has "no value" does not mean they cant tax or regulate it. US cash has no value... its a FIAT currency. It only has value because the FED and US Treasury says its worth somthing and we all agree to use it. If there is money in it and not enough people protest.. they will figure out a way to tax it.

There once was a time where there were no: income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes...

[Fierce Critter]

I really don't know the in's and outs of other games, the only one I play is Second Life.

But with Second Life, you can actually sell items for L$ (Linden Dollars), and convert those L$ into genuine USD Cash. I'm looking into creating clothing, avatars & the like myself eventually as a side-income.

Mayhap that is a bit different...

[BrassFusion]

It only has value because the FED and US Treasury says its worth somthing and we all agree to use it. If there is money in it and not enough people protest.. they will figure out a way to tax it.

All American retailers agree to use the American dollar as trade, but they don't all agree to use MMORPG gold or items as trade; virtual gold has no international value or market value and you sure as hell can't deposit it at National City. The protest will be in the form of games reaffirming their terms of service against gold pharming. Then the issue will be dead for two different reasons.

With the exception, of course, of games where a legitimate profit can be made that is legal within the game's terms of service:

[...]with Second Life, you can actually sell items for L$ (Linden Dollars), and convert those L$ into genuine USD Cash. I'm looking into creating clothing, avatars & the like myself eventually as a side-income.

Mayhap that is a bit different...

If you actually make money selling clothing and avatars and etc. on Second Life, you should probably already be declaring it as income, according to those evil troll accountants at the IRS. Whether you do that or not is your business, as long as you understand the risks.

[Dubh Aingeal]

heh