The IRS wants a piece of RMTFollow

This is two days old so forgive me if it's been linked already.



I'm only vaguely familiar with Second Life but it seems to not suffer from RMT issues the way other mmorpgs do, and may even be promotive of RMT. Games like EQ2 have RMT sanctioned servers. I can see where the IRS' eye has been caught. For games like wow or ffix though, I wonder how lawmakers will justify taxing and activity that necessarily violates the ToS or EULA.

Not being a participator in RMT I couldn't care less if they start taxing it, in fact it may even curb the chinese farmer syndrome by getting the government to look at it as an import/export scenario they would actually bother passing laws to control RMT exchanges.

This might even be motivation for the gov't to rule that game charcters and assets are property, at least in part, of the player and not solely the production company.

if the virtual currency is not actualized as real monies then it cannot be taxed.

In other words, 1 million gold cannot be taxed (it isnt real). However if you sold 1 million gold to company X for 700$ that 700$ is taxable.

Yeah, the entire point of Second Life is to pay real money for in game property and items, and you can also create your own items and services, sell them to other players, and make some real cash yourself. Entirely different from WoW RMT. However, it's possible that using the RMT system in Second Life could be used to launder money or transfer large sums tax free... so I can see why the IRS would be interested.

Wow, maybe I should buy Second Life then and start up a mafia.

Yeah. I've played Second Life for over two years now, and people are making real incomes from it. One person sells virtual real estate in the game, makes over $200,000 a year, and has 4 employees that sell the land for her online.

Before, Linden Labs (the makers of Second Life) didn't have a built-in SL money -> USD/USD -> SL Money system, and they've just recently implemented one that you can use on their website. The currency fluctuates like a regular currency, and is actually just starting to improve from a recent bout of inflation.

The problem I have is that they look at second life and make an overly broad rule that impacts wow as well. They could try to base the "real value" on current gold seller pricing. Nooo.... (after many hours of great fun, quits wow and retires to former life glued to TV). I wonder how much money the IRS would lose by crippling a billion dollar industry?

Ugh, for the last time, I'm a DREADLORD, not a Druglord.

I stated this above but actually our IRS does try to tax money gained from drug selling. Our IRS code also states that you should list any items you have stolen in the year so it can be taxed...

I mean sure you would have to be stupid and report it first but it is in our tax code lol.

not if you aren't resident in the US or a US citizen.

edit: or conducting business in the US... which makes for an interesting point

Edited, Oct 19th 2006 at 12:11pm PDT by dashwoe

What does RMT abbreviation stand for?

If it means taxing the game's income or something I don't think they will do the work for games that work internationally.

All I have to say to this is;

"Sorry guys, I'd take that item since it's rot otherwise... but if I do it'll bump me into the next tax bracket and I just can't afford that right now."

From what little I've seen, Second Life isn't a traditional MMO, more like a glorified chatroom combined with a Sim game. You don't go fighting dragons and giants to loot their horde, you work and sell things just like in real life. It's a "second life". It's supposed to mimic reality...

God, is it just me, or does that sound like the Matrix?

If you want to understand the big picture, you should surf Garth Brooks in Wikipedia. Very short piece on his fight with second hand CD stores reselling CD's with the artists not getting royalties. He's been a big proponent of the gaming companies putting registration in their CD's and the music companies push against Napster. Blizzard is of the opinion they created the software and own the intellectual rights and if Gold Selling is also damaging their reputation with their customer base it needs to be diminished anyway possible.

One reason this site owner is anti resale is it cuts down on the profit of his advertiser GameStop. I'm against it as they've made me a ton of money and I'm hoping to profit off them in the future. Now if Blizzard, GameStop, Allakhazam and I have to pay taxes why should a gold buyer not pay taxes on his purchase and the seller on the sale? The moment Gold Sellers R Us Dot Com enters the US and establishes a store at the US ISP they should be subject to US Taxes or risk being boarded by the Coasties. If Levis wants to produce their Jeans in Guatemala, Wal-Mart is going to tax the product right.

And yes, I wear Wranglers now or Kodiak and pay the GST to Canada. When I travel through Salamanca (Seneca Nation), I buy my fuel and smokes at Tribal stations, and always purchase a news paper. Sorry I don't do the casino's but would have no problem with a Server for WOW being on a reservation so long as they were paying the Tribal Taxes.

Keep in mind I take freight into Canada and have to take my paperwork through a Brokerage and Customs. I'm searched regularly by both sides and the military so if I have to jump through hoops I'd like them to do it with a hoola hoop. With some of our EU members with "Free Internet”, they are paying for it with their taxes with the ISP being "State" or "Crown" owned probably under the Postal Service as Germany does with their Rail System.

Now if the Peoples Republic of China can tax Blizzard for server sites and local ISP usage why can't the US charge the Gold Sellers and buyers for the commodity or service? If it raises the cost of Out Sourcing services and brings jobs, back to the US or makes it less profitable for American Companies to move their headquarters off shore...