Britain Jumps on Violent Video Game Tax Bandwagon

Britain's top authority on knife crimes is telling his boss — Prime Minister Gordon Brown — to tax violent video games just after Pennsylvania legislators considered the same thing. More »

Idea Man Proposes Game Tax To Fund Juvenile Rehab Program

Here's an idea: propose a 1 percent tax increase on sales tax in the state of Wisconsin to help fund programs for juvenile rehabilitation programs for those who shouldn't be tried as adults in cases of non-violent crimes. Now, a dumb idea: impose that 1 percent tax only on video games and video game consoles. That knuckleheaded proposal can be credited to Democratic senator Jon Erpenbach, who probably has some notion that the purchasing of video games has some direct and doubtless correlation to becoming a delinquent youth. The notion is silly, misguided and smacks of pandering to fellow dim bulbs who are spooked about the dangers of Grand Theft Auto creating a generation of hooker murdering thugs. More »

South Korea Taxes Virtual Assets

The Korea National Tax service will start imposing a VAT (value-added tax) on virtual asset transactions. Sellers who do between 6 and 12 millions dollars in Korean currency (the Won) per half year will have the VAT applied automatically the transaction's midde-man. Sellers that happen to more than 12 million won/half year will need a business license in order to pay the tax by themselves. More »

MMOG Tax Man Comes Aknockin'

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Sony To Pay $243M in Japanese Back Taxes

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Taxation Without Materialization

So you finally got your full set of Tier 1 armor in World of Warcraft. Did you remember to declare it on your tax forms? That question may not be as ridiculous as it seems. After all, you don't need to have cash in hand in order to be taxed on it. Theoretical investment income and similarly semi-real goods are taxable, as are game winnings. If you can sell your tricked-out Tauren for hard American cash, the IRS may want to know about it. Sure, this probably won't affect the average gamer for a long time, if ever, but as MMORPGs start to include sanctioned markets where you can buy virtual items for real money, it seems pretty likely that the taxman will want to treat stocks of gold and healing potions as real goods when April comes around. Of course, they'll want their share in actual dollars. More »

The Real Cost of Online Gaming?

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