NEWS: Congress to decide on taxing virtual items

[Dayner]

Legislators expected to take position next month on whether or not gamers owe the IRS a cut from sales of in-game items, property.

For months, the community of virtual-world publishers, players, and economists has been holding its breath, waiting for the US Congress to issue its report on the potential taxation of virtual goods. Well, we don't have to wait much longer.

Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress' Joint Economic Committee, told CNET News.com on Friday that he expects the committee to issue its report during the upcoming Congressional recess next month. What that report will say is unknown, as the committee has kept entirely quiet about its thoughts.

"Given growth rates of 10 to 15 percent a month, the question is when, not if, Congress and IRS start paying attention to these issues," Miller, who is a fan of virtual worlds and economies, told CNET News.com in December. "So it is incumbent on us to set the terms and the debate so we have a shaped tax policy toward virtual worlds and virtual economies in a favorable way."

Meanwhile, a lot is riding on the outcome. If Congress signals it intends to start taxing in-world commerce, that could create huge problems for publishers, who may have to figure out efficient ways to track all such trades. If Congress goes the other way, many people will feel that it is just punting and that it will still only be a matter of time before some major government decides to step in.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173095.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;3

 

[Kotsu]

lol good thing I'm poor

 

[Skaw]

Pretty sure this will only apply to Second Life.

You don't own shit in any other MMO, it's all property of whoever developed/published it.

 

[Isomiau]

Wait, so...since prostitution is illegal, does this mean i cant masturbate to online pornography?

 

[Dayner]

well i think only going to hurt guys who use real money to buy virtual items or selling it

in short its maybe good

 

[Pinkay]

well i think only going to hurt guys who use real money

Well I would hope so XD

Imagine the government taxing us RL money for every purchase we made with gil.

 

[RoM]

lolno.

The problem with congress passing a taxation on something like this is that congress on large has little to absolutely no fucking understanding about how the internet or more specificly proprietary games on the internet work.

 

[Skaw]

A series of tubes.

Granted, he's a Senator. But close enough.

 

[Sneakypants]

Can't tax RA/EX bitch. It's worth nothing to anyone, but the owner.

 

[duncanrun]

Well I would hope so XD

Imagine the government taxing us RL money for every purchase we made with gil.

Thats fine but they have to keep it as gil. Since trading in game money for RL money is against the ToS.

 

[Direwolf]

lolno.

The problem with congress passing a taxation on something like this is that congress on large has little to absolutely no fucking understanding about how the internet or more specificly proprietary games on the internet work.

This is why I am afraid. Congress as a whole strike me as a bunch of dirty corrupt old men. What they know about how video games work is comparable to their understanding of the internet, which is to say less then non existant. To quote the esteemed Senator Ted Stevens,

"Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially. [...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."

Yea people like this will probably fuck us all in their incompetence, greed, or stupidity. Or most likely a combination of the three.

 

[Uzor]

Sure, they can take 25% of the gil when I buy something off of the AH. However, I don't see what the government would do with a couple of billion gil. Are they planning to start selling it off for RL money?

Seriously, how can people be that moronic? lol. Is the US government going to start taxing people outside the US playing a JP game because they want more money? Sorry, but I don't think that will get far.

That will probably only apply to Second Life etc. If they ever do it with normal game money like Gil or Gold from WoW, they will get jumped down their throats by every gaming company in the world. These companies would lose insane ammount of money if gamers suddenly need to pay 100 bucks for buying an in-game item worth 100k. Because, quite honestly, everyone playing would quit.

 

[Jagster]

Sure, they can take 25% of the gil when I buy something off of the AH. However, I don't see what the government would do with a couple of billion gil. Are they planning to start selling it off for RL money?

Seriously, how can people be that moronic? lol. Is the US government going to start taxing people outside the US playing a JP game because they want more money? Sorry, but I don't think that will get far.

That will probably only apply to Second Life etc. If they ever do it with normal game money like Gil or Gold from WoW, they will get jumped down their throats by every gaming company in the world. These companies would lose insane ammount of money if gamers suddenly need to pay 100 bucks for buying an in-game item worth 100k. Because, quite honestly, everyone playing would quit.

I'm pretty sure the talk is about the buying and selling of ingame money.

 

[Negorissimo]

The question would be where would the government expect me to fill this BS, in the long form or the short form?...

 

[Uzor]

I'm pretty sure the talk is about the buying and selling of ingame money.

Yes, hence why I said it will probably mainly apply to Second Life and RMT sites, since they'd get every MMO company on their throats otherwise.

 

[Zaltana]

dont they have better things to do.......

 

[Ruffyreborn]

yeah, this will not apply to games like FFXI, WoW and etc... But to games such as Second Life, and chat programs like IMVU where real money is NEEDED to upgrade your character and environment

 

[Xalioniaf]

Damn, there goes my superpimp Runescape character D:

Sucks to be them, at least.

 

[Siviard]

So, if they do this, they acknowledge the existence of RMT, and in doing so, they let the terrorists win (the RMT) lol :biggrin:

 

[chrono fantasy]

If the government starts charging taxes on ingame purchases with gil or gold or whatever, we'd probably end up seeing a Virtual World war 3 in which all the other countries will try to shutdown all of American's electronic systems with hackings and such.