China taxing online worlds.

"After formally announcing their intention to tax the sale of virtual goods within online worlds at the end of last month, the Beijing branch of the Chinese State Administration of Taxation has now revealed the details of the newly instituted protocol.

Once income is generated through the sale of virtual goods, individuals "should go to the tax department to pay personal income tax within seven days of the day after the transactions," according to Shanghai Daily. Those who can provide proof of the value of the original property will see a 20 percent tax on their profits, while those lacking solid evidence will face charges equal to 3 percent of the total transaction.

This newly instituted tax is no doubt a reaction by the Chinese government to the rapidly growing virtual goods market in the online-gaming-obsessed country -- a segment of the economy that topped $1.37 billion in 2007."

blog.wired.com...

Is it right to tax somebody who earns dollars in a game like "Second Life".
I understand that some people actually make real dollars by selling virtual products in those worlds.

Where do we draw a line that the politicians and tax collectors can't cross?

I saw a thread about dreams being viewed on a computer. Will they eventually have access to our imaginations?

Will we eventually be taxed on our opinions?

Will we pay a points tax from out threads and posts one day?

"Nope, better not respond to Schrodingers Dog on that last post. Opinion tax is getting too steep."

I don't like this trend.

Nope. Nope. Nope.






[edit on 11-12-2008 by badgerprints]

Well, if you're not making real money, but in game money, I would send some in game and totally useless to the real world, as its just game play, tokens to them.

Well its a well known fact, in games like WOrld of Warcraft, that the Chinese populace will "farm gold" by killing a few uninteresting monsters over and over and over and over and over. Just to collect the few coins that drop off it. After a period of weeks, they have collected thousands of coins "gold" , and then they turn around and SELL the collected items to rich ppl who are too lazy to play the game themselves.

Right now 1000g equals about 15 US Dollars $$.

I play purely for fun, and I can make about 10,000-25,000 gold in one week. Granted im an elite auction houser' , I would assume a Chinese gold farmer can gather about 10,000-15,000 gold in one week.

Thats about 150-200$ USA DOllars in one week.

In CHINA 200$ US is a HUGE amount of $$$$!

No wonder China wants to Tax it.

Maybe this will stop some of them from what they are doing, because in most cases it is Illegal and agianst the terms and coniditions.

I certainly dont support gold farmers. They can ruin the game. (Especially their incessant SPAM in chat channels CONSTANTLY is extremely annoying)

ANd you know when they are from China too, becuase they cannot speak english worth a dam. They have horrible english.

Originally posted by mystiq
Well, if you're not making real money, but in game money, I would send some in game and totally useless to the real world, as its just game play, tokens to them.

Please understand that IN GAME MONEY can be sold for REAL US Dollars!

There are lazy bums who are too lazy to even play a video game, yet rich enough to pay you to play it for them!

Its a HUGE BOOMING buisness!

If i sold my WoW account, I could make around 4000-5000 $ USA.

reply to post by mystiq


Actually the in game money in some of these virtual worlds does translate to hard currency in the physical world.

Is it right to tax somebody who earns dollars in a game like "Second Life".
Its not right to tax individuals income, period.
Tax is a scam.

ugh i hate our planet...

tax tax tax

money money money


wtf will they dream up to tax us on next ?

sleep tax ? walking tax ? i mean cars pay a toll, why not tax people for using sidewalks ?

leaving your house tax, you leave your house u pay tax, why ? i dont know, cause we can and we will find a reason to rob you