kotaku.com — The Korean National Tax Service has announced they will be tacking on value added tax (VAT) to real-money transactions (RMT) in virtual worlds beginning 1 July. WOW & Second Lifers look out: Is this a preview of things to come in the US?
Jun 30, 2007 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJul 1, 2007
If this law does come to America, couldn't one just upload the content to an offshore server and 'sell' it from there?
sawtaJul 1, 2007
So...they're taxing gold farmers? Oh no...
kingamoonJul 1, 2007
"Is this a preview of things to come in the US?"No man. American politicians have common sense and they'd never pass something like ... LOL ... I couldn't hold a straight face saying this. It'll be here before the end of the year.
gbriggs12Jul 1, 2007
(thick southern) SCV good to go sir -- (thick arab / russian) Battlecruiser operational
tech42erJul 2, 2007
I hope he's being sarcastic.
tech42erJul 2, 2007
I'd prefer to replace "taxman" with "government". Otherwise, I love the rhyme :)
shawn4168Jul 2, 2007
This account has been closed by the user
wratherinJul 2, 2007
Alright, let me clear this up a bit. Many (if not most) free online games use cash shops now in order to make money. People have the option of buying items (usually items that temporarily boost states or experience acquisition rates. Also different kinds of equipmen) for real life cash. This tax would be taxing every transaction that takes place where a person buys an item from the game publisher for real life cash.What makes no sense is there is no need for this tax. Why are they being taxed? This is all being done by private companies and government is not having to pay for anything and so it should not be taxing for money that it does not need.This worries me because I am currently working wih a fre to play game that will be using a cash-shop (www.2moons.acclaim.com) that was developed in South Korea (and is quite large there) and I certainly would hate to see this kind of law passed in America.