Rev Hellfire
10-19-2006, 02:39 PM
There's an interesting article on the beeb about how the US congress and the IRS are looking at the transactions within the various online games,.
The full article is here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6065534.stm)
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the US Congress has announced it is investigating the amount of commerce taking place in virtual game worlds.
The investigation is unlikely to mean that in-game trading will start to be taxed.
Many popular virtual worlds such as Eve Online and Second Life revolve around trade of one sort or another.
Cash call
In a statement announcing the investigation, the Committee said its probe was prompted by the "dramatic increase in the popularity of online gaming".
It said it was interested solely in the "universe of transactions" that occur within online worlds such as Second Life.
Although an economic value can be put on this trade because in-game currencies do have an equivalent real world value, committee chairman Jim Saxton said its investigation was not being carried out with a view to slapping taxes on this trade.
"There is a concern that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) might step forward with regulations that start taxing transactions that occur within virtual economies," said Mr Saxton. "This, I believe, would be a mistake."
The full article is here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6065534.stm)
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the US Congress has announced it is investigating the amount of commerce taking place in virtual game worlds.
The investigation is unlikely to mean that in-game trading will start to be taxed.
Many popular virtual worlds such as Eve Online and Second Life revolve around trade of one sort or another.
Cash call
In a statement announcing the investigation, the Committee said its probe was prompted by the "dramatic increase in the popularity of online gaming".
It said it was interested solely in the "universe of transactions" that occur within online worlds such as Second Life.
Although an economic value can be put on this trade because in-game currencies do have an equivalent real world value, committee chairman Jim Saxton said its investigation was not being carried out with a view to slapping taxes on this trade.
"There is a concern that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) might step forward with regulations that start taxing transactions that occur within virtual economies," said Mr Saxton. "This, I believe, would be a mistake."