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While comparing Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's "9-9-9" tax play to the default settings for a SimCity game was an amusing diversion, no one actually believes Mr. Cain borrowed his ideas from a video game. No one except the video game's creators, that is. More »
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The New York Times this morning published an extensive look at the system of tax incentives and breaks exploited by games makers, concluding that their write-offs to research and development costs satisfy the letter, but not the spirit, of 50-year-old tax policies that by now defy common sense. More »
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Mario wasn't fast enough to save Princess Peach from captivity in the Video Game Castle of Chicopee, Massachusetts, as captured by Kotakuite Lyphted this weekend. More »
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For the first time, I took my taxes to a paid preparer. First thing tomorrow morning I meet with them to approve the documents. The anxiety I feel is absolutely the same as my parents getting my report card. More »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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. More »
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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. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=184535&view=rss&microfeed=true 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 »
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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. More »
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