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The Sloth
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Posted - 2006.10.21 13:25:00 -
[1]
I stumbled across an article on BBC news which stated the following -
 Originally by: BBC News article
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the US Congress has announced it is investigating the amount of commerce taking place in virtual game worlds.
The investigation is unlikely to mean that in-game trading will start to be taxed.
Many popular virtual worlds such as Eve Online and Second Life revolve around trade of one sort or another...
Full Article
The JEC statement which can be found here indicates that they are looking at taxing real-world income earned by transactions originating in virtual economies. I don't really have a problem with this as I do not make any income from selling any in-game items etc. Honestly, the people that do deserve to be taxed...amongst other things.
However, as in-game wealth and goods increasingly have a real-world value, I do not think it that far a stretch for purely in-game transactions of these items to eventually be taxed as there is what can be construed as a transfer of wealth. Frankly I think this eventuality would be quite disturbing...unless, of course, they let me pay my taxes in ISK.
What are your thoughts?
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Samirol
Ore Mongers
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Posted - 2006.10.21 14:44:00 -
[2]
it wont go anywhere, they will assign the most incompetent guys that have only played solitaire on a computer before.
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Tarquin Tarquinius
Gallente
Etruscan Kings
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Posted - 2006.10.21 15:23:00 -
[3]
Isn't making money of this stuff not exactly legal. Seems like it would be a copyright violation or something. Plus how are they supposed to tax people in Mexico or China.
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0.0 System Renaming?
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St Dragon
Blood Association of Dragons
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Posted - 2006.10.21 15:28:00 -
[4]
I think what they are doing is studdying the concept of an mmorpg ecomomy so that one day they can tell lawmakers what counts as taxable goods in the online world. This will probably apply to E-Bay items and store goods not ingame stuff which is just interlectrall property and is not owned by the ingame customer.
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"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand |
Leverton
Caldari
AWE Corporation
Ascendant Frontier
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Posted - 2006.10.21 20:43:00 -
[5]
If you read the TOS of pretty much every MMORPG, it will say something along the lines of "all characters, items, gold/ISK/gil/money etc is the property of _____(company name), and may not be traded or sold to anyone without express consent of ______(company name)."
This means that since the property is not legally changing hands, there is not, in a legal sense, any trade going on. We all know there is, but you can't expressly tax illegal black market trade.
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The universe is governed by the aggressive use of force.
Hows this for a little note! Oh, and YARRRRR!! - Petwraith
I prefer the term RAWR  - Xorus |
Tarquin Tarquinius
Gallente
Etruscan Kings
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Posted - 2006.10.21 20:55:00 -
[6]
Originally by: Leverton
We all know there is, but you can't expressly tax illegal black market trade.
I think in the USA you can plead the 5th (self incrimination) on your taxes. This would allows pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers to pay taxes without being arrested. If they didn't pay taxes, they'd be getting arrested for tax evasion like Al Capone. I could be wrong.
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insert sig here
0.0 System Renaming?
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Leverton
Caldari
AWE Corporation
Ascendant Frontier
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Posted - 2006.10.21 20:56:00 -
[7]
What I meant is that congress won't pass a law that says "we're taxing illegal activity." They just don't do that.
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The universe is governed by the aggressive use of force.
Hows this for a little note! Oh, and YARRRRR!! - Petwraith
I prefer the term RAWR - Xorus |
Fraszoid
Caldari
Intergalactic Mining
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Posted - 2006.10.21 21:40:00 -
[8]
Taxing income in EVE wouldn't work on the basis of its illegal according to game rule. Second Life on the other hand would be perfectly legal because they let you sell your in-game currency for real money, so that could be construed as income. Also with the SL servers in the states, it woundn't be too hard for the IRS to get their cut from it. They could tax it at 30% like they do for the gambling winnings for people from out of the country. Then you can fill out paperwork to try and get it back.
Everyone is born right handed, only the great over come it.
Check out my players guide at:
http://www.eve-miners.info/guide/minersguide.html |
Jernau Gurgeh
Gallente
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Posted - 2006.10.21 21:42:00 -
[9]
How many threads do we need about this?
There are 10 sorts of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who do not. |
Falzone
Gallente
FATAL REVELATIONS
Lotka Volterra
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Posted - 2006.10.22 16:45:00 -
[10]
If there's a bunch of other threads, sorry, this is the first one I've seen.
Here's an interesting thought though. If Congress were to pass a law allowing taxation of income earned through an MMORPG, then the opposite also holds true.
I can claim capital loss for income lost through an MMORPG. That's $15 a month to start with. If the value of $100 million ISK is say...$100, then every time I lose a ship or other sources of revenue in game, I could also claim capital loss for every increment of $100 million ISK I lost.
And when the economy in game goes down, I can claim depreciation on my goods. =) I like the idea!
-Falzone
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Erotic Irony
RONA Deepspace
Rule of Three
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Posted - 2006.10.22 17:08:00 -
[11]
Is this the same Congress that doesn't know what The internet is?
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Serenity Winterfyre
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Posted - 2006.10.23 06:19:00 -
[12]
Originally by: Erotic Irony
Is this the same Congress that doesn't know what The internet is?
I laughed so hard I started to cry. bwhahahahaha great stuff. Shows how out of touch congress is with technology... among almost everything else.
{o,o}
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O RLY?
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Ozawi
Minmatar
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Posted - 2006.10.23 13:56:00 -
[13]
It has nothing to do with games like EVE.
It's related more to games like Second Life, where you can exhange items created in game directly for real money.
Now if it ever gets to the point of being able to buy a BPO directly through the game with real life $$$, then you'd have to worry about that affecting EVE. (The grey area with GTC for $$$/ISK would have too many loopholes and vague areas for any legislative body to ever come to a conclusion on.)
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Vargrh
Gallente
Forsaken Empire
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Posted - 2006.10.31 02:53:00 -
[14]
If someone was to sell ingame 'items' or 'currency' on ebay and make a living from doing this, why shouldn't the state persue them for income tax payments on it?
If someone is making $100k a year selling stuff from games, how is that any differant from earning $100k from any other job. Its no differant to money obtained by other 'jobs'.
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