JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel
04-13-2007, 02:00 AM
This is an old article but there are alot of gamers on here, so I figured I'd share it...................
Game players beware: The IRS wants your virtual assets
If you've been piling up virtual cash and assets in online games such as World of Warcraft or Second Life, you could be in for a big shock: The IRS may start taxing your money and assets.
So says Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress' Joint Economic Committee. In fact, Miller believes that such taxation is inevitable.
"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 said at a panel called "Tax and Finance" at the State of Play/Terra Nova symposium, according to CNet. He added, "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."
That not bizarre enough for you? Then how about inheritance issues? On the same panel, William LaPiana, an expert on wills, trusts and estates, and a professor at New York University, said that someone who had significant amounts of virtual gaming assets could be taxed upon death -- the virtual assets would become part of his estate and taxable if the total estate exceeded $2 million.
Given that the federal government has not been a reality-based enterprise for years, perhaps none of this should come as a surprise to anyone. Still, we can only hope that these taxes don't come to pass.
However, if they do, the feds should at least let people pay their taxes using virtual money.
Game players beware: The IRS wants your virtual assets
If you've been piling up virtual cash and assets in online games such as World of Warcraft or Second Life, you could be in for a big shock: The IRS may start taxing your money and assets.
So says Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress' Joint Economic Committee. In fact, Miller believes that such taxation is inevitable.
"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 said at a panel called "Tax and Finance" at the State of Play/Terra Nova symposium, according to CNet. He added, "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."
That not bizarre enough for you? Then how about inheritance issues? On the same panel, William LaPiana, an expert on wills, trusts and estates, and a professor at New York University, said that someone who had significant amounts of virtual gaming assets could be taxed upon death -- the virtual assets would become part of his estate and taxable if the total estate exceeded $2 million.
Given that the federal government has not been a reality-based enterprise for years, perhaps none of this should come as a surprise to anyone. Still, we can only hope that these taxes don't come to pass.
However, if they do, the feds should at least let people pay their taxes using virtual money.