Quote:
Originally posted by Bungleau:
Hmmm... so what's different now than before?
If I sell something to someone, taxes are supposed to be paid. If it's a small amount (like a garage sale, tag sale, yard sale, or what have you), then it's generally not worth the paperwork or hassle for either side.
If I sell something worth $100,000, then it's now worth the amount. It doesn't matter if it's a chair I crafted, a story I wrote, or an item I acquired in an on-line game. Someone gave me $100,000 for something that I gave them in return. The taxing authorities are interested in that... [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]
It's a leap from there to taxing the gold I earn in a computer game. It's only if I give that to someone else in exchange for money that the taxers care...
That said, the tax authorities are going to want to know when these transactions take place, so they're likely to go to the sources... those who run the game.
Figuring out how much profit was made... that's where the fun will be. Sure, I traded a million gold for a thousand euros... but it did cost me something to earn those gold, so you can't tax me on all of it...
I smell a business opportunity coming up.
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I think you're missing the point. Do you play any MMORPG? In every mmorpg I played, it's illegal to sell ingame items for real world money. Real players don't make ANY money out of playing those game. It make as much sense as taxing you for the gold and items you got in Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights. Did you ever make any money out of those games? Do you want to be taxed for every gold you found in those games?
If this really get passed, this mean that since players are going to be charged for those items, they will HAVE to convert their gaming session into work sessions. Forget about dropping of even selling old items to the shopkeeper, you paid taxes on them, you might as well sell them for real life money to get cash back. What's next, are games going to stop using gold coins and start using real life US currency? Say bye bye to gaming as you knew it.
Oh! And by the way, you owe 2k US in taxes for all that time you played on Ziroc's Undermountain server.