The enemy has fallen
 

Imagine this: You're playing your favorite MMO, grinding levels, PKing, or defeating that uber-scary boss. Did you get any good items in the process? Perhaps that legendary Spoon of Infinite Stirring you've been longing to obtain? I hope you enjoy it, because the government wants to tax your virtual property.

Are you ready to pay?

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

Motivation to get a real job so they can tax you for the money you get from that, I suppose.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

..........

I'm lost for words.

Since when has the IRS had the right to take control over the development of a video game and its virtual economy? Wait, they don't, and they shouldn't.

Greedy whores.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

America, what a country.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

Was hoping this was about Gaia. =/

IRS makes me rofl though

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

Sounds like they don't want to tax earning money in-game, but rather they want to tax, you know, real income, like the kind everyone gets taxed for.

Making gold in WoW can't be taxed, but selling goods and services for income probably can.

If that's the case, what's the big deal?

EDIT: Way to be completely misleading about the deal, though. That's some nice dead-end rhetoric.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

They'd only tax the selling of goods over Ebay and stuff like that.

EDIT: Guido pretty much ninja'd what I meant.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

Why would the IRS tax transactions that would probably be against the game's ToS?

I know the practice is lucrative, but trading in-game currency for real-life money is against most MMOs' rules. :/

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

Second Life, I can understand. I heard that someone became a millionaire through playing it. But WoW? Why would anyone want to tax that?

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

If people can make lots of money out of something, it will be taxed.

I'm a bit concerned about the companies that make the games, though. It might become harder for them to keep their in-game economies in check.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

It's a form of income. Why should the IRS care about what the game developer thinks of the practice that they can't even control?

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

They need to just get rid of income tax and raise sales tax. That would fix all of this and more.

And yeah, the title is more misleading, but if they're just taxing online transactions of real money then whatever. And ebay has banned virtual items, so that befuddles some of the trading that goes on. I dunno, if the government does this and doesn't raise taxes elsewhere, whatever, cuz it's not like I make money off of WoW gold.

EDIT: Guido, I think he's saying it'd be like taxing the illegal drug trade. 1) It shouldn't be happening anyway, 2) Because of 1, it makes it hard to track and accurately tax.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

If there's actual income involved, yeah, it makes total sense to me. But, "valuable" online property, with "value" only having meaning in-game, that it's totally ridiculous. In the context of the article... well, I see no problem.

Re: The enemy has fallen
 

I dont really understand waht your saying lol