Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
ESA Lobbying in Washington
CPmmo
Member Posts: 309
www.gamespot.com/news/6179403.html
Looks like the ESA has increased their lobbying and one of the issues is game taxation.
If they pass a law to tax on the sale of items then it will be a short move to taxing the potential value on ingame items. IT WILL HAPPEN.
Don't think so then just look at the guy who caught Barry Bond's 756 home run ball. He wanted to keep it, but the IRS would of taxed him on the potential value the ball has if it was sold. Not the value of the ball itself (which would of been like 2 dollars) but the value of it being Barry Bond's home run ball (which meant it was going to be valued at over 500K) this forced the guy to sell the ball because he couldn't afford the 30K+ dollar tax bill he was going to get it if he kept it.
So soon little johnny's parents are going to get a tax bill for Johnny's World of Warcraft account and it's potential total value.
It is BS, but it will happen if they start taxing any part of virtual item sales.
War Beta Tester
Comments
MMO items hold no value as it's against the contract/ToS to sell them in 99% of games.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
They have discussed this many times. They are seriously considering it now btw.
<a href="http://profile.xfire.com/xgu1ltyx"><img src="http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/sh/type/3/xgu1ltyx.png"; width="149" height="29" /></a>
That is what happened to the ball that Barry Bond's hit. It had an expected value even though the ball itself wasn't worth anything. And techinically the ball is still the property of the Major League Baseball association since they paid for it, but people are able to profit on the ball when they sell it.
This is pretty much a very similar situation. If it happens it could have huge ramafications in the MMO world. Games developers might have to include RMT in their own models in order to set values on virtual items. That way they can keep the value down on virtual items so that people can actually afford to play and amass wealth, items, and experience in the game.
War Beta Tester
From the wayi read it if i dont personally profit from such virtuall items such as ammo and guns in EvE for example it wont be taxed. Also im not american.
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
I don't think you will get taxed for in game transactions.
I think the taxes will be applied if you want to sell virtual items in the real world for real money.
In that way companies like IGE will pay extra taxes for each transaction, I think that's the reason behind it.
I don't think they want to target people who genuinely play the game for fun.
You are missing my point. Of course the way it will start is only to get the rightful taxes that should be being paid by companies like IGE etc. But once they place a value on the transaction it will not stop there. They will create values for the product that is being sold and in turn that will allow them to later tax MMO game accounts as assets.
War Beta Tester
Just for correction(because whenever someone says this, it always annoys me, dis-information for the lose!). The barry bonds baseball shenanigan, it was BS. One of the guys friends told him the IRS was going to tax him, which was a lie. They were not going to tax him for posession of the ball, only if he sold it, which he did.
That is all...
"Fear not death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal."
You are missing my point. Of course the way it will start is only to get the rightful taxes that should be being paid by companies like IGE etc. But once they place a value on the transaction it will not stop there. They will create values for the product that is being sold and in turn that will allow them to later tax MMO game accounts as assets.
I didn't miss your point.
I am just saying that is not going to happen.
You get taxed only on transactions, so if you owe an account and don't sell it, you will never be charged.
If you sell your account then you ll be charged, but then again, you are not supposed to sell it in the first place, since it is not your property
You said it yourself that if something like this would happen, it will be impossible to keep an MMO account open.
So no accounts = no profits = no games = it doesn't make sense.
IF you kill a business because of the taxes, you won't get any taxes at all, and the governement don't want that.
They are just making a law to regulate virtual transactions, so people or companies that profit out of it, will pay taxes, and that's about it.
The genuine gamer has nothing to fear.
You are missing my point. Of course the way it will start is only to get the rightful taxes that should be being paid by companies like IGE etc. But once they place a value on the transaction it will not stop there. They will create values for the product that is being sold and in turn that will allow them to later tax MMO game accounts as assets.
So tell that to the guy who caught Barry Bond's Baseball. He didn't want to sell it but they charged taxes anyways on the prospective value of this baseball. Not the actual value of what was spent on the baseball but on the guess value based on the fact that it was the 756 HR ball.I didn't miss your point.
I am just saying that is not going to happen.
You get taxed only on transactions, so if you owe an account and don't sell it, you will never be charged.
If you sell your account then you ll be charged, but then again, you are not supposed to sell it in the first place, since it is not your property
You said it yourself that if something like this would happen, it will be impossible to keep an MMO account open.
So no accounts = no profits = no games = it doesn't make sense.
IF you kill a business because of the taxes, you won't get any taxes at all, and the governement don't want that.
They are just making a law to regulate virtual transactions, so people or companies that profit out of it, will pay taxes, and that's about it.
The genuine gamer has nothing to fear.
So yes they can and will start to count virtual items as assets. And assets get taxed.
If you do not think it can happen then you are living in a virtual world.
War Beta Tester
It actually is not BS. Maybe the fact that the IRS had already contacted him was BS, but they can and will tax based on what is known as Luxury items and prespective value. They can tax you on an ART collection even if you are not selling them because they are known as assets. A valuable baseball like this would be considered an asset, just like Virtual property if assigned a value do to Real money transactions can be considered assets.
War Beta Tester