teh Forum

Saw this on HOCP

Taxing Virtual Economies?

Is the government kicking around the idea of taxing virtual economies like the ones in World Of Warcraft? Could you imagine having to pony up taxes on your virtual items and money?

"Right now we're at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind of public policy questions virtual economies raise -- taxes, barter exchanges, property and wealth," said Dan Miller, senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.

There will never be a comprehensive enough understanding of the ways these games/worlds work by legislators to effectively tax them. They have been talking about creatively taxing teh intarnets for over a decade - yet no one seems to really be able to figure out what creative means, even on something as commonplace as that. "Kicking around the idea" probably just means some dude just put the idea out there (you hear they have the internet on computers now?) so they will be "looking into it." Of course, when they do, they weill realize it is far too complicated of an issue to ever do anything about - or at least anytime soon.

Yes, but that could also be a problem. Not understanding them, may lead to creating even more ridiculous laws.

It's not like taxing a truck...

It's more like taxing one's occipital lobe.