[Pantera]

Ridiculous?

[somniferum]

Preposterous

[Spirochete]

What if I cash in overseas, say on a Cayman vacation?

[353FMG]

After prostitution, tax collecting is the oldest profession.

[Teflonic]

Fair Tax please!

[Shellback Chuck]

They can tax my +225 Claymore when they pry it from my cold dead claws.

[non-anonymous]

With all the virtual gold it collects, the IRS will be able to strut around pwning n00bs at an incredible pace.

[Slings and Arrows]

---

[right-wingin_It]

Not too long from now, the IRS will want Accounting majors with minors in Video Games!

[fhlh]

DORKS!!!!!

[1rudeboy]

What chance does the IRS have against +8 chainmail and a shield of resistance?

Honestly, the amount of real money that floats around these games is incredible (although I'd argue it's already being taxed). Check eBay.

[LibFreeOrDie]

This isn't from "The Onion"?

[Screamname]

Not really... Do a search on ebay and you will find people selling online character accounts for thousands of bucks. What`s ridiculous is how people find the time to do this stuff, but then again the highest earners on this planet are those involved in entertainment. People have an obsession with escapism. I think this is one of the reasons why the arts have so dramatically declined in recent years, why music, writing, movies, painting etc ect have gone down hill. The same focus and interest that drove artists in the past has now been diverted by the computer. This is why you have so many remakes of old movies, because nobody is writing original scripts and why you haven`t heard any great new songs. If I had any talent I`d be going ape sh*t because the art field is wide open right now in practically every area.

[unixfox]

...you probably haven't wondered whether the United States government will someday tax your virtual winnings from games played over the Internet. every damn thing on planet earth!

They play their games we play ours.

[TexanToTheCore]

I am a bit alarmed that I thought this was pure "Scrappleface". I think there are too many IRs agents spending waaaaaaay too much time at work playing virtual games.

Dorks is an understatement.

[sgtbono2002]

When they figure a way to tax oxygen we are all in trouble.

[madison10]

Is this a joke? The "housecleaning" Nancy Pelosi is threatening the country with needs to start at the IRS.

[KarlInOhio]

Video game assets have no real value and would be taxable unless they are sold to some sucker... kind of like internet stocks in 2000 or California real estate.

[ancient_geezer]

We've already had virtual money for the large part of a Century with fractional reserve banking. Virtual taxes?

As the man said:

"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," said Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress' Joint Economic Committee, who is also a fan of virtual worlds.

Mark my words, next they'll be contracting with the trolls to be toll collectors on interstate bridges.

[Dont Mention the War]

CNet doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to politics. As such, I can't take this too seriously.