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When Tax Day Comes to Azeroth
1up is running a short piece originally from Games For Windows: The Official Magazine. It discusses the inevitability of taxation coming to virtual worlds, and a little bit about what that might mean in the indeterminate future: "Taxable income includes everything from tangibles like cookies to more ephemeral and subjective things like works of art, concert tickets, or advice. Those big, scary books that most sane people pay accountants to understand for them don't really narrow down what counts as taxable income so much as meticulously define it as damn near any piece of matter, energy, or information that should happen to pass into your possession over the course of the year. That goofy World of WarCraft gnome that GFW editor-in-chief Jeff Green's been leveling isn't any more intangible than, say, stocks."
With having tax collectors in the game that players can beat up and rob?
Haven't we discussed this enough?
Isn't it time we had a separate /. section for all this virtual taxation nonesense? They could run a competition to design for the logo for it! I propose a piggy bank with acne.
At the bottom of the
There are only two things in this world that you cannot escape: taxes and the wow graveyard
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Sure, but my epic gear is on my character and soul bound, I can't sublet it. I draw no income from owning said gear(which as we have established via the EULA, I do not actually own). In fact, if they really wanted to tax me on it, they would end up owing me since my Wow habit is a total loss. In which case I would deduct my monthly fees for my account, the electricity to run my machine for the hours I played that year(statistics which are easily obtainable), then theres the matter of the costs of my internet connection. How about depreciation? The gear I got a year ago is not worth the same as the gear you can get today. Do I get to claim deprecation losses? They can't have it both ways. If you want to tax my virtual possessions, make sure that I am actually gaining income otherwise I get to claim it as a loss.
I'm going to be the first one to level the new accounting profession to 375 so I can handle peoples' online tax forms! I'll be rich! I'll have to get some investors so that I can offer advances on expected refunds and I can charge huge interest rates! Look for my new office in Org...