[geeks] geeks Digest, Vol 56, Issue 41

[William Kirkland]

I am not suggesting the IRS should be "inside" the game, but until it  
is ... it's a game. ... as are all simulations including those that  
cost us tax paying citizens 100M.

On Jul 31, 2007, at 21:24 PDT, geeks-request at sunhelp.org wrote:

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:03:25 -0400
From: Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net>
Subject: Re: [geeks] Second Life is not a game?
To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
Message-ID: <46B0060D.70403 at speakeasy.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

William Kirkland wrote:
> *IF* we assume that "Second Life" is not a game ...
>
> When you file your taxes, do you claim your income that your avatar
> received in 'Second Life'?


Congress has been debating that very question for some months now.
INTENSELY.  The general idea is, "If anyone anywhere is making some
money, even if it isn't real, we want our share of it."  The basic idea
seems to be that if any online game world has any kind of virtual
economy where you can build up assets that can hypothetically be
exchanged for real money, with or without the blessing of the game's
creators, then Uncle Sam wants his "fair" share of whatever your virtual
assets are "worth".

--
bill.kirkland at gmail.com