arstechnica.com — When you buy that hot outfit for your Second Life avatar, you don't have to pay tax on it, and neither does the person selling it to you. That may change, however, now that virtual economies are on the IRS' radar.
Jan 12, 2009 View in Crawl 4
cultist667Jan 12, 2009
Easy delete everything it never existed. Tell the IRS f**ks to call the WOW GM to do a restoration of the rich toon you deleted. Oops used up all three of mine on my account. Go f**k yourself IRS.
midtownerJan 12, 2009
I assume what's coming is that the IRS is going to start requiring online service providers and purveyors of goods to start sending out annual forms (like W-2's, but with a much lower threshold amount) detailing the amount received by each taxpayer from each company. I also wouldn't be completely shocked to see some sort of required reporting of goods sold as states are missing out on taxing a lot lot of unreported online transactions.
digdug135Jan 13, 2009
"When you buy that hot outfit for your Second Life avatar, ... and neither does the person selling it to you."Wait. What? How is that not already income?
mksmothersJan 13, 2009
We need an IRS region on secondlife, with IRS avatars collecting virutal money. That region would get griefed so quickly it would make their head spin.
crushthemtorgJan 14, 2009
HEY! TECH 2 IS WORKING AS INTENDED.EvE free since 2006 and glad I quit before they removed the effective 3.6ISK cap on Trit. Otherwise I'd be out in a barge tearing up high sec space. What was the giant exploit he missed?
dougmcJan 14, 2009
But the government is taxing those who sell virtual items, not those who buy ...(Though it may be that the state governments will want to add sales tax! That would be a new thing.)If you make a profit, the IRS wants it's cut. It doesn't matter how you got this profit -- by selling houses, stock, products of your body (sperm, plasma, etc.), ass, crack or WoW gold ... it's not taxing online. It's taxing in the real world, just like the IRS has always done.
u235sentinelJan 14, 2009
I guess they are looking to tax virtual money. I would be happy to pay them in virtual cash. No problem. :-)
Closed AccountJan 14, 2009
Yah, conservatives hate taxing people.
Closed AccountJan 15, 2009
Wow, that's some bulls**t right there.
oscarolimJan 16, 2009
So the country taxes twice the same item: or n-times.I sell a phone to you: pay taxes.You sell the same phone to another guy: you pay taxes.The other guy sells the phone: the other guy pay taxes.In the end, the sum of taxes is more than what the phone is worth :p