It's not clear that there is a connection between violent video games and knife crimes in Britain, but knife crime adviser Richard Taylor says that young people in his country can buy violent video games too easily and too cheaply.

According to the Telegraph, Taylor told the Home Affairs Committee: "I have young people who I mentor and I see them go up and buy the games and it saddens me that they are being able to have such a negative impact."

Taylor goes on to say that rap music is also a problem.

"It is creating more of a problem because of the language that is used. It is language that, as a father, I would not allow my children to hear.

"To me, there is a lot of negativity that comes out of this music, especially that which is coming from America."

Ah, yes. Blame America — the guys who started the violent video game tax trend when a Children and Youth Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives heard arguments for slapping a 5% tax on violent video games last week.

It's not clear that a tax would fly on this side of the pond. State judiciaries are really protective of constitutional rights to make, publish and sell pretty much anything that isn't porn or marijuana (and even that's a gray area in California). But in Britain? Who knows.

Tax violent video games to beat knife crime, says Damilola Taylor's father [Telegraph via GamePolitics]

Lawmaker wants expanded juvenile treatments [Wisconsin Radio Network via GamePolitics] [Image]

This allows the NTS to track all the transactions of taxed virtual items. Korean publishers haven't made a peep since this law has been passed, but it creates a global milestone for those that succeed it.
South Korea Begins Taxing Virtual Assets [Game|Life]

The Congressional Joint Economic Committee — a group of taxmen, economists and autocrats — have admitted that tax law has fallen "way behind" the march of MMOG progress and are now seriously looking into the issue of taxing virtual assets and incomes.

There's a good argument to be made for taxing virtual economies, of course. Second Life has over $500,000 dollars worth of in-game transactions a day, mostly in furry prostitution. Fair enough to tax virtual economies when it's possible to cash-in and cash-out of your virtual holdings.

But I'm going to tell you this: the second the Murky, Omnipresent Man cuts VAT off the top of the Helm of Fire I just bought off the Undercity Auction House is the day I motherfucking snap. Imagine a dozen law offers lying in pulsing, quivering wrecks of mutilated flesh at my feat as I stare at the sun and laugh and laugh and laugh. And when the Feds bullets tear through my flesh, turning my internal organs into slurry, my last words will be "Is that the best you pansies can do?" before the inferno-like hate dims from my eyes and my grip loosens on the throat of Dan MIller, senior economist for the JEC. Florian Eckhardt

US Congress launches probe into virtual economies [Reuters]

Sony really just can't catch a break lately: the PS3's too hard to make, Microsoft's got a year on them in the next-gen war, Immersion won't let them use Rumble and Ken Kutaragi is a lunatic. And now, the cow that drops through the roof of your barn after your survive the twister: Sony's been ordered to pay an additional $243 million in taxes to the Japanese Government.

The taxes are in relation to transactions between the games division and a U.S. subsidiary, as well as overseas transactions in its CD and DVD-making operations. Said Sony:

Sony and SCEI believe that their allocation of income for the periods in question was appropriate and that they have paid the proper amount of taxes in each of the jurisdictions.

It's a bad tax season for Sony, after they were previously nailed with 100 million in back taxes after a U.K. court ridiculed Sony's argument that the PS2 was a home computer, and therefore could safely dodge E.U. taxes on entertainment machines. Florian Eckhardt

Sony says ordered to pay extra Y27.9 bln taxes [Reuters]

Taxed Out! [GameDaily]

On Morning Edition, NPR talked with Julian Dibbel (the author of this piece, which we blogged when we looked at the prospects of IRS taxing your gear in an MMO). Dibbell talks about his own earnings over the year by trading virtual wares (he made about $11,000), but he isn't going to be the one who starts reporting this to the IRS. As Dibbell jokes in the recording that he doesn't want to be the guy responsible for having game companies file a 1099 each time a " magic earring drops off of a dragon whelp." I wouldn't want to be that guy, either. But as I was listening to Dibbell, and then re-listening to the piece again I started to think about my own character in Blizzard's World of Warcraft. After all it is tax time, and my account is ten months old, so how would I trace my tax history for the year.

Would my repair bills be tax deductible? Should I keep track of how much gold I spend on them each week? Or are repairs simply an operating expense? Hey, about the 2400 gold I sold an item for and then split with two other buddies, is the 1600 gold I gave to them able to be written off as charity? What defines a work expense in-game and a leisure expense? I use an awful lot of potions raiding, is it possible that those are deductible? The very idea, that Dibbell joked about, Blizzard filing 1099s for boss drops is fascinating. Game Masters would have to lurk in raid zones chronicling drops, filing 1099 forms, because the items, while they aren't all sellable, they do increase the value of the character, and therefore the real money value of the character escalates, too. If the IRS gets involved with this, MMO gaming might need a major overhaul.

Online Gaming, Money and Tax Law [NPR]
The IRS May Be Coming for Your Virtual Wares [Kotaku]
The Taxman Cometh [Terra Nova]