http://news.com.com/Are+virtual+assets+taxable/2100-1043_3-6027212.html?tag=nefd.top
Should the government tax money and items in games such as World of Warcraft just because people are selling some of them online?
Um, no.
Okay, that wasn’t really what I wanted to say. That would be more like FUCK NO.
We’re not talking just when they sell the items (which I can kind of understand. Real money is being made there) but just for their characters *having* the items.
Common freaking sense, people. It’s data. On a server. Controlled by a company and plainly stated that it isn’t “owned” by the player.
The idiocy of this boggles my mind. Why, oh why, are you even pondering this question?
Current mood: my head hurts
Current music: Depeche Mode – Barrel of a Gun
1 comment:
If people have to pay taxes for pixels (especially since a huge chunk of those are under 18 I would imagine), people are probably going to stop playing. Granted some won't, because games are like crack for them...
I could understand taxing their sale. No big deal. If people wanna be dumb enough to buy stuff that I'm guessing they could find in-game, and pay sales tax on it, go them. Not my problem. Maybe it doesn't seem stupid to them, but it does to me since I have this thing about paying money for stuff like that unless the money is serving to keep the thing running. Evem then I don't pay money for that right now, because it's just not sensible to use my college loans for online games.
The guy asks "why hasn't it happened already?" Because it would be stupid and they don't want to piss off the geeks. Dude, you piss off too many geeks and your whole world goes to hell. lol
Why does he think the government would have to tax the tiems before they're sold. Sure, they could be sold. But how many people actually are selling them? Tax the sales, not the people who are trying to play a fun game.
"If you're going to tax exchanges in the real world, you've got to tax exchanges in the virtual world, in economic theory." Then you'd better be taxing them in virtual dollars.
"Common sense says that when people are playing a game of Monopoly, you don't tax (the properties they buy and sell)." Okay finally we have some sense in this article. Yes, it's the same thing. Granted I don't know many people who will pay real money for monopoly pieces, but neither is everybody on these online games out to buy and sell for real.
"it would require the constant tracking of the value of every kind of in-game asset and of all nonmonetary transactions." Extra stress on the government, extra stress on the programmers, extra stress on the citizens. Not worth the extra money it would rake in.
What scares me is this guy who plays the game is arguing how great an idea this is. He WANTS extra taxes??? Teacher, teacher, you forgot to give us homework!
Sheeeesh!
Long comment, sorry. But jeez....
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