The monster drops 15 silver pieces of taxable income
Speaking of the game, I recently heard an argument that I find a little disturbing, if sensible.
The argument goes like this: at some point in the future, it's very likely that virtual property, stuff you acquire in virtual worlds like the game I play, will be taxed by our real-world governments.
How, you ask, can a government reasonably expect to collect real money from non-physical property?
Well, they can reasonably expect that because, as a matter of practicality, much virtual property does have real-world value.
For instance, for a long time now gamers have been selling valuable game items to other gamers for real-world cash. So, say they found a valuable game item that other people might want. They advertise this game-item on E-Bay or some such, somebody pays real cash for it, and the item is transferred in-game.
In fact, an entire cottage industry has grown up in China involving people collecting game money and items and selling them for real money. These "Chinese gold farmers" have been a significant presence in my game ever since I started playing it, and odd as it might sound, I'm told that some of them get enough real money that way to make a living from it.
So now your government gets involved. A government could possibly say, "Well, if this virtual property has real money value, then that virtual can be taxed for its real money value." And governments being what they are, this as-yet-unrealized possibility becomes a likelihood.
Of course the sale of virtual property for real money should already be taxable. Income is income. The argument here is rather that the transfer of virtual property...perhaps when the owner dies and wills the property to someone else...might also be taxable, even though no real money exchanged hands. The virtual property has real value, and it's being transferred between two people, so that would reasonably fit into the same category as other sorts of taxable property transfer.
There would be some obvious problems with this...how would the government reasonably keep track of ownership virtual property, or assess its value for taxation...but these are not problems without hypothetical solutions.
And governments sure do like to tax things, so there's motivation to find those solutions.
The argument goes like this: at some point in the future, it's very likely that virtual property, stuff you acquire in virtual worlds like the game I play, will be taxed by our real-world governments.
How, you ask, can a government reasonably expect to collect real money from non-physical property?
Well, they can reasonably expect that because, as a matter of practicality, much virtual property does have real-world value.
For instance, for a long time now gamers have been selling valuable game items to other gamers for real-world cash. So, say they found a valuable game item that other people might want. They advertise this game-item on E-Bay or some such, somebody pays real cash for it, and the item is transferred in-game.
In fact, an entire cottage industry has grown up in China involving people collecting game money and items and selling them for real money. These "Chinese gold farmers" have been a significant presence in my game ever since I started playing it, and odd as it might sound, I'm told that some of them get enough real money that way to make a living from it.
So now your government gets involved. A government could possibly say, "Well, if this virtual property has real money value, then that virtual can be taxed for its real money value." And governments being what they are, this as-yet-unrealized possibility becomes a likelihood.
Of course the sale of virtual property for real money should already be taxable. Income is income. The argument here is rather that the transfer of virtual property...perhaps when the owner dies and wills the property to someone else...might also be taxable, even though no real money exchanged hands. The virtual property has real value, and it's being transferred between two people, so that would reasonably fit into the same category as other sorts of taxable property transfer.
There would be some obvious problems with this...how would the government reasonably keep track of ownership virtual property, or assess its value for taxation...but these are not problems without hypothetical solutions.
And governments sure do like to tax things, so there's motivation to find those solutions.
posted by Craig at 6:50 AM
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