Has the Time Come to Start Taxing Online Game Currency?

Taxing Game Currency? It just doesn't seem to matter what people do these days. There will be a way to tax anything and everything.

www.allgov.com...

If you’ve been making out like a bandit playing Farmville or Second Life or any other online game that awards prizes in the form of virtual currency, the IRS may want to talk to you.

I could say that this leaves me speechless but it's more like outrage for me.

How far will Government go to line their pockets? It seems there is no stopping the greed that takes us to the poor house penny by penny. How much more can they take from an over taxed people?

Although the idea of taxing virtual currency may seem to make as much sense as trying to tax people’s winnings in the board game Monopoly™, tax experts are now saying that a virtual income tax may be in our future. The reason is that virtual currency, unlike Monopoly™ money, has come over the last few years to have value in the real world of dollars and euros. Online auction sites let people bid on real world items with virtual currency, and sites like eBay treat Second Life as a real merchant, allowing users to exchange its virtual “Linden dollars” for items they buy or sell.

Yup, virtual currency.

Have a look at the post under this one to get a wake up call as to the taxes people are paying. Taxes that didn't exist 100 years ago.

Peace

1. Accounts Receivable Tax
2. Accounting and Tax Preparation (cost to taxpayers $300 billion)
3. Accumulated Earnings Tax
4. Accumulation Distribution of Trusts
5. Activity Fee (Dumping Permit Fee)
6 . Air Tax (PA coin-operated vacuums)
7. Aircraft Jet Fuel Tax
8. Aircraft Excise Tax
9 . Alcohol Fuels Tax
10. Alcoholic Beverage Tax
11. Alternative Minimum Tax – Amt
12. Ambulance Services (Air Ambulance Services, SD)
13. Ammunition Tax
14. Amusement Tax (MA, VA, MD)
15. Animal Slaughter Tax (WI, others, Per Animal)

www.newrochelletalk.com...

And even more...


203. Virtual Gaming Tax



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This is actually a great idea.

Video games are destroying productivity, attention spans, literacy, and social interaction.

I'm all for banning video games altogether.

Originally posted by DaTroof
This is actually a great idea.

Video games are destroying productivity, attention spans, literacy, and social interaction.

I'm all for banning video games altogether.

Video Games don't kill people...People kill people...

But seriously, everything in moderation.

Peace

Anybody got a facepalm graphic??????

Preferably one from "The Empire Strikes Back"!

reply to post by jude11


A lot of people are making money off these games. Seriously. The last MMORPG I played FFXI, people farmed and sold game currency for real cash believe it or not. People paying real money for game money, as ridiculous as it sounds. I am pretty sure the same thing happens in half life. People have been caught in half life, stealing things from rendorosity and daz3d, and passing it off as their own, making money off it.

This is a big facepalm moment,
They can't be serious, that is one of the stupidest things i've heard in awhile,
Like we need more taxes, right?

My god these people are greedy! So are they going to tax my gold in World of Warcraft, is that going to be the one place where the rich actually pay taxes?
Other than this, another currency came to mind. What about the Bitcoin, because from what I understand, and I can be wrong, one of the specialties of it is that it bypasses all financial institutions. Would the IRS really be the first one to step up to the plate and tax this virtual currency?
I also ask just how can virtual money help in any way to the economic crisis? Does WoW gold have an exchange rate, do sheep in farmville sell for actual money?
So many questions, so much ignorance, such greedy people in power.

Well, when they start taxing me for picking up women at the bar, Im getting married.

reply to post by AzureSky


I can see this from two sides of a coin...

For a casual gamer, it is absolutely insane to tax someone based on an imaginary item. In the EULA or ToS for most games, they even explicitly tell you that the money is owned ENTIRELY by the company that hosts the game.

So... in essence... the government would have to tax the company, and not the player.

On the other hand, you can see the argument from the luxury tax point of view. You pay extra taxes on tobacco, alcohol, jewelry, etc in most cases... so I can see the government trying to bleed extra money out of video games.

Now in another instance, I used to sell in-game currency for a game called Lineage 2 and made an ass-load of money... even helped pay my way through college and buy a car.

I can see the government wanting a piece of that action... and for a pretty good reason. The servers are hosted in the USA, you are making money based in the USA, and they want you paying taxes on that income to the USA.

I do NOT support them taxing the casual player's bankroll in a game like WoW...

But I can certainly see why they would want to in some cases.

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo
reply to post by AzureSky

 

I can see the government wanting a piece of that action... and for a pretty good reason. The servers are hosted in the USA, you are making money based in the USA, and they want you paying taxes on that income to the USA.

I can see that side but how to explain this then? It doesn't matter where it's earned. If you have that citizenship, your ass is owned.
www.taxmeless.com...

As a U.S. expatriate residing in abroad, you still must file a US Income Tax Return each year on your worldwide income! The stories you hear from the fellow American expatriate sitting next to you at the bar that once you leave the U.S., you no longer owe any taxes or have to file tax returns , are about as true as most bar room tales. Its against the law to give up your U.S. citizenship in order to avoid U.S. taxes! Therefore, if you aren't filing your U.S. tax return, the statute of limitations on tax collections will not run out and your tax return obligation (and perhaps the taxes you owe) only grows greater as each year passes.

Originally posted by DaTroof
This is actually a great idea.

Video games are destroying productivity, attention spans, literacy, and social interaction.

I'm all for banning video games altogether.

Let me guess, instead of people interacting in online games, you prefer forcing them to do something more productive, like watching TV?

Oh yeah, that's much more productive, feeds their literacy, and increases social interaction... (Not to mention open them to indoctrination/manipulation by the media)

reply to post by jude11


HAHAHAHA really? Well come and get me IRS, I will be waiting.....

reply to post by ~Vixen~


Not that I claim that I know what is in that guy's head, but most people that are against wasting time playing videogames, are also against wasting time watching TV. I like books much better myself but that is just me. I do admit to playing my xbox360 once in a while, but I am not what you would call a serious gamer anymore. I play games way more than I watch TV, as at least games are interactive, instead of passively sitting there zombieing out on the couch

Originally posted by DaTroof
This is actually a great idea.

Video games are destroying productivity, attention spans, literacy, and social interaction.

I'm all for banning video games altogether.

I think public education is destroying essentially the same things.

Ban hammer? Ok.

This sounds like recycled old news, some congressmen were floating this idea a few years back. I guess they got nowhere last time either.

The thing is, the whole idea is ridiculous, I mean congress already has the power to tax income from people making a living from video games. Someone building stuff in second life and selling it to pay the rent and ect, to me is no different from freelance journalists, writers, sub contractors etc; anyone who receives their income independently and not directly from a company who with holds social security etc.

As, far as I know we don't need new tax laws to deal with those people so why do we need it for people making a living off video games.....

Oh that is right, because then congress wouldn't be able to pass a draconian law that will probably tax all people playing video games to catch a few that make a living off of it. Sorry I forgot it's congress; greedy self entitled pigs.

Yeah I am against this legislation personally and just see it as another money grab after all I guess the FED thinks it doesn't have enough of the peoples money yet; like all of it.

Damn your behind...
You know that they allready do that...

Scenario:

I play game, i make ingame money, i withdraw that money
OR sell items INGAME for real life currency..

IF i make ENOUGH money, that is considderd an INCOME..
All incomes is TAXED...

That is if you live i sweden....The TAXHELL on earth....

Originally posted by Miccey
Damn your behind...
You know that they allready do that...

Scenario:

I play game, i make ingame money, i withdraw that money
OR sell items INGAME for real life currency..

IF i make ENOUGH money, that is considderd an INCOME..
All incomes is TAXED...

That is if you live i sweden....The TAXHELL on earth....

That is the withdrawal of real currency that is being taxed. The issue pointed out here is the taxation of a currency that is currently outside of taxation, online currency. You can't withdraw an online currency and, say, buy a burger at McDonald's with it.

Originally posted by jude11

Originally posted by YouAreLiedTo
reply to post by AzureSky

 

I can see the government wanting a piece of that action... and for a pretty good reason. The servers are hosted in the USA, you are making money based in the USA, and they want you paying taxes on that income to the USA.

I can see that side but how to explain this then? It doesn't matter where it's earned. If you have that citizenship, your ass is owned.
www.taxmeless.com...

As a U.S. expatriate residing in abroad, you still must file a US Income Tax Return each year on your worldwide income! The stories you hear from the fellow American expatriate sitting next to you at the bar that once you leave the U.S., you no longer owe any taxes or have to file tax returns , are about as true as most bar room tales. Its against the law to give up your U.S. citizenship in order to avoid U.S. taxes! Therefore, if you aren't filing your U.S. tax return, the statute of limitations on tax collections will not run out and your tax return obligation (and perhaps the taxes you owe) only grows greater as each year passes.

I don't really know a great deal about tax laws, but if someone left the USA as an expatriot, the government should revoke their citizenship in the first place.

You don't like the USA enough to live here but want to keep your citizenship? Hah, laughable at best. Paying for your citizenship is your duty to the state you belong, in my opinion. Moving to avoid taxes should be grounds for revoking citizenship.

It's the same thing as the illegal immigrant argument here in the USA, just colored with a different brush.

When I worked in the sandbox setting up communications for the DoD, they offered me a tax-free contract. But I didn't avoid the laws.