November 2002
- Economic Indices for Virtual Worlds Koster, Raph
- Economic Indices for Virtual Worlds Frank Crowell
- Economic Indices for Virtual Worlds Justin Stocks
- Real money and virtual worlds Koster, Raph
- Real money and virtual worlds Dave Trump
- Real money and virtual worlds Amanda Walker
- Real money and virtual worlds Ron Gabbard
From: "Amanda Walker" <amanda@alfar.com>
> On 11/13/02 4:42 AM, Dave Trump <trump@trumps.net> wrote:
>> I saw something today about the states agreeing on internet
>> taxation. How long until the IRS, Federal Govt, perhaps even
>> Microsoft or some other nafarious organization comes and trys to
>> get the cut they think they deserve from your ingame dealings?
> This came up several months ago on the list during the blacksnow
> discussion, as I recall. This is one of the dangers of claiming
> that in-game assets have real-world value. For things like eBay
> auctions, claiming "miscellaneous income" is probably sufficient,
> but the general principle is that if you make real money on a
> transaction, the IRS wants you to pay real income tax on it. No
> free lunch.
It gets a little messier than that... Remember why Wheel of Fortune
went to a straight-cash payout instead of having contestants buy
prizes with their winnings? The winners would come off the show
with $X,000 in trips, sofas, jet skis, etc. then have to pay taxes
on these items. The IRS didn't care that the items were won in a
game. Once virtual items have an established (eBay) market price in
real $, what's the difference?
Going down the slippery slope a bit, let's say that the federal
government someday decides that online-gaming is bad (for whatever
reason). They don't have to go up against the 1st Amendment to
fight online game companies, they can use tax laws. Remember when
Wisconsin was told by the federal government that they had to raise
their legal drinking age from 18 to 21? They had no authority to
make this demand. However, the federal government held the
pocketbook for federal highway funds and threatened to withhold
funding unless Wisconsin raised their drinking age. Wisconsin has a
21 yo drinking age now.
It's not unlike the federal government to use money and tax laws to
force entities, over which they would usually have no authority, to
do their will. The establishment of efficient market prices through
online auctions for ingame items is just the hook the federal
government needs to make the case that virtual items have real world
value and the "winning" of such items is taxable should they ever
want to play that card.
Cheers,
Ron - Real money and virtual worlds Matt Mihaly
- Real money and virtual worlds Ron Gabbard
- Real money and virtual worlds Ron Gabbard
- Real money and virtual worlds Marc Fielding
- Real money and virtual worlds Martin Bassie
- Real money and virtual worlds Matt Mihaly
- descriptive logic Bruce Mitchener
- descriptive logic Robert Zubek
- Picketing in Sims Online Koster, Raph
- Picketing in Sims Online Derek Licciardi
- Picketing in Sims Online John Robert Arras
- Picketing in Sims Online Marc Fielding
- Picketing in Sims Online shren
- Picketing in Sims Online Marc Fielding
- Picketing in Sims Online Dave Rickey
- Picketing in Sims Online Damion Schubert
- Picketing in Sims Online Mike Shaver
- Picketing in Sims Online Marc Fielding
- online voice communication Matt Mihaly
- online voice communication Dave Trump
- online voice communication Sasha Hart
- online voice communication Ted L. Chen
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Koster, Raph
- online voice communication Ted L. Chen
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Damion Schubert
- online voice communication Peter Harkins
- online voice communication Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Dave Trump
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Miroslav Silovic
- online voice communication Corey Crawford
- online voice communication Marc Fielding
- online voice communication Corey Crawford
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Christopher Allen
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Steven Cummings
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Matt Mihaly
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services David Kennerly
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Damion Schubert
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Ron Gabbard
- Korea and online world responsibility Koster, Raph
- Korea and online world responsibility Sean Kelly
- Korea and online world responsibility apollyon
- Korea and online world responsibility Koster, Raph
- Korea and online world responsibility Rudy Fink
- Korea and online world responsibility shren
- Korea and online world responsibility Clay
- Korea and online world responsibility Sean Kelly
- Korea and online world responsibility Marian Griffith
- Korea and online world responsibility Matt Mihaly
- Korea and online world responsibility Damion Schubert
- Korea and online world responsibility Sean Kelly
- Korea and online world responsibility Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Korea and online world responsibility Mike Parker
- [MUD-DEV]: Stories in Multiplayer Online Games holding99@mindspring.com
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Frank Crowell
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Ted L. Chen
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Dave Rickey
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Sasha Hart
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Dave Rickey
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Sasha Hart
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Ted L. Chen
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Freeman, Jeff
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Amanda Walker
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Frank Crowell
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Damion Schubert
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 shren
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Frank Crowell
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Frank Crowell
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Ted L. Chen
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Ted L. Chen
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Frank Crowell
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Sean Kelly
- BIZ: MMORG Pioneer looking for part/full time gig F. Randall Farmer
- OpenCroquet Bruce Mitchener
- OpenCroquet Frank Crowell
- OpenCroquet Frank Crowell
- [TECH] memory management system released Bruce Mitchener