Taxing and Regulating Virtual Worlds

Pajamas Media ^ | November 15 | Andie Brownlow

[bamahead]

With this inevitable tax comes intrusive and overbearing regulation. More bureaucracy and less freedom; that’s always a good thing, right?....



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[MetaThought]

If the government can tax virtual world items, then you should be able to claim capital losses on your in-game gold ...

[altair]

<sarcasm>I think they should tax in game items! It's not fair that some rich people get to ride around on Mekgineer's Choppers

They need to be taxed and the gold redistributed to poor level 80s who are still riding racial mounts!

Don't get me started about mammoth mounts and the way they cause Global Warming with their copious exhalation of digestive gasses. At the rate they are appearing, Northrend will be completely melted before the Cataclysm. Save Azeroth!</sarcasm>

[altair]

Let the taxes be paid in WoW gold or whatever it is they use.

Interestingly enough, there are already gold sinks or taxes built into the game. Armor and weaponry suffers durability loss as it is used and must be repaired periodically lest it become completely useless. The auction house levies a surcharge on sales. Certain classes like Hunter have a "bullet tax" just to go outside a city.

If Varian Wrynn ever levies a tax, I'm going to get my engineer to fixing The Exodar and we'll just find ourselves a better planet.

Sigh. I play WoW to get away from junk like this and I've neither ever purchased or sold WoW gold for real world money. I've already paid sales tax on the game itself. I've already paid income tax on the monthly subscription fee. It's already too much.

[altair]

In the mid 1980s, when the internet was in its infancy, there were numerous chain letters that described a coming "modem tax" that would carry additional fees for connectivity. We used to laugh at those people.

I'm not at all comfortable with this one. 2nd Life apparently has a conversion rate between taxable currency and in-game currency and that's treading dangerous waters.

[listenhillary]

Wait for the “Digital property tax”

You know those 10,000 movies stored on your hard drive? Yep, pay up.