[geeks] Second Life is not a game?

[William Kirkland]

makes it a game, just like visiting a poker table in Las Vegas ...  
you would only need to claim the net winnings.

On Jul 31, 2007, at 18:37 PDT, geeks-request at sunhelp.org wrote:

Message: 10
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:36:33 -0700
From: Jon Gilbert <jjj at io.com>
Subject: Re: [geeks] Second Life is not a game?

On Jul 31, 2007, at 3:42 PM, 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'?

That is actually a very good question. I have spoken to my lawyers
about it. Essentially, if you earn Linden Dollars, but you do not
"withdraw" them from Second Life, then while they are in there they
can be considered as investments, because the L$ fluctuates. There is
actually a market for exchanging currency where you can buy L$ with
the specific intent of making money trading it when the value of it
rises (http://www.secondlife.com/currency/market.php). It operates
just like a stock market.

My understanding is that you only have to report L$ as income on your
taxes if you ever convert the L$ back into real-life money. Of
course, I'm not a lawyer, so maybe I have this all wrong. Obviously
the laws don't specifically state what you have to do in terms of
taxes, but certainly once you convert L$ into USD$, then you have to
report it as income.

-
Jon Gilbert
PGP fingerprint: 7FA9 B168 73CA A698 DD9E  2DF2 EE1A 3E73 3119 741F



--
bill.kirkland at gmail.com