This is horrible news and sets a dangerous precedent for gaming. And this will not hurt gold sellers.  They will just pass the additonal cost on to their customers, same as every industry. 

By establishing that virtual items and currency have real world value, they then have a basis for taxing you ingame every time you loot an item, trade an item, sell an item to vendor, auction an item, etc.  This is bad, very, very bad.

Originally posted by Terranah

This is horrible news and sets a dangerous precedent for gaming. And this will not hurt gold sellers.  They will just pass the additonal cost on to their customers, same as every industry. 

 

By establishing that virtual items and currency have real world value, they then have a basis for taxing you ingame every time you loot an item, trade an item, sell an item to vendor, auction an item, etc.  This is bad, very, very bad.

Wouldn't the trend be that more people by a cheaper product then a more expensive?  If they raise prices less people will buy.  Atleast that is the way markets work, isn't it? 

No, it won't hurt gold sellers. They will pass the cost to consumers.

I don't see how they can even keep track of these profits, anyways. Like ebay sellers, the US govt has no idea what most of them make.

That's a fairly low tax rate. Mine was 25% last year.That doesn't even include state and city tax, SS and medicaid.

Good, let them pass that cost on to the "consumers." It might not stop many of them, but at least it'll hurt them a little more.

This is actually a great move by the chinese government. Being that virtual item sales has become a billion dollar business this is potentially huge income for the government. I wish the US government would adopt such measures to reduce the sagging national deficit (which is growing into a 2.9 trillion dollar deficit by 2011 if nothing is done about it). But yeah this is like a pinprick to an elephant but at this time anything will help.

Good for China, America should be more like China. Thier should be a tax on games because to me games should be in the same tax boat as alcohol and tobacco, you don't need them but If you do buy them you should be taxed. More taxes on things you don't need (games, alchohol, tobacco) means less taxes coming out of your pay check (hopefully). I'm tired of America's democracy, I want the government to make decisions for the citizens because the citizens aren't smart enough to make their own rational/logical decisions.

Originally posted by Terranah

This is horrible news and sets a dangerous precedent for gaming. And this will not hurt gold sellers.  They will just pass the additonal cost on to their customers, same as every industry. 

 

By establishing that virtual items and currency have real world value, they then have a basis for taxing you ingame every time you loot an item, trade an item, sell an item to vendor, auction an item, etc.  This is bad, very, very bad.

^^^ This is what all the "Furor" is about.  People aren't seeing the bigger picture.  They think this kind of thing will only effect gold sellers, but really this is just the start of a huge downward spiral.

I can see this leading to things like "You looted X epic item.  X epic item can be sold for 10$ real money.  We tax you for that 10$ item."

Sure hope other countries don't follow their lead, or this could spell the end of MMORPG gaming as we know it.

Originally posted by Cyborg99

Good for China, America should be more like China. Thier should be a tax on games because to me games should be in the same tax boat as alcohol and tobacco, you don't need them but If you do buy them you should be taxed. More taxes on things you don't need (games, alchohol, tobacco) means less taxes coming out of your pay check (hopefully). I'm tired of America's democracy, I want the government to make decisions for the citizens because the citizens aren't smart enough to make their own rational/logical decisions.

We DO get taxed for buying games, you silly.  So you want us to be taxed on our fake items in games as well?  That's just dumb.  I should tax you for using space up on the internet to type that dumb message you wrote.

Originally posted by merkels

 

We DO get taxed for buying games, you silly.  So you want us to be taxed on our fake items in games as well?  That's just dumb.  I should tax you for using space up on the internet to type that dumb message you wrote.

Actually this case is more like taxing services since the product is a "service" (there's no real item involved). Actually many game companies in the US is already starting to tax their games... NCSoft is one such company.

This is why you want to live in a democracy...... with conservative ,elected ,leadership.

Originally posted by merkels

Originally posted by Terranah

This is horrible news and sets a dangerous precedent for gaming. And this will not hurt gold sellers.  They will just pass the additonal cost on to their customers, same as every industry. 

 

By establishing that virtual items and currency have real world value, they then have a basis for taxing you ingame every time you loot an item, trade an item, sell an item to vendor, auction an item, etc.  This is bad, very, very bad.

^^^ This is what all the "Furor" is about.  People aren't seeing the bigger picture.  They think this kind of thing will only effect gold sellers, but really this is just the start of a huge downward spiral.

I can see this leading to things like "You looted X epic item.  X epic item can be sold for 10$ real money.  We tax you for that 10$ item."

Sure hope other countries don't follow their lead, or this could spell the end of MMORPG gaming as we know it.

Except you are not seeing the bigger picture. Something only has worth if you SELL IT. If I go to a swap meet thinking about selling something, but don't, I'm not charged tax on what I could've sold that item for. I'm not taxed if I decide to paint a wall in my house, which is a service that has value. Nor would I be taxed for having a character in an MMO that's worth $600.

Do you know why?

Because I didn't make any money! What a concept. I don't sell something, and thus I'm not taxed for it.

Originally posted by merkels

Originally posted by Terranah

This is horrible news and sets a dangerous precedent for gaming. And this will not hurt gold sellers.  They will just pass the additonal cost on to their customers, same as every industry. 

 

By establishing that virtual items and currency have real world value, they then have a basis for taxing you ingame every time you loot an item, trade an item, sell an item to vendor, auction an item, etc.  This is bad, very, very bad.

 

^^^ This is what all the "Furor" is about.  People aren't seeing the bigger picture.  They think this kind of thing will only effect gold sellers, but really this is just the start of a huge downward spiral.

 

I can see this leading to things like "You looted X epic item.  X epic item can be sold for 10$ real money.  We tax you for that 10$ item."

 

Sure hope other countries don't follow their lead, or this could spell the end of MMORPG gaming as we know it.

That's nonsense.  It would be an accounting nightmare.  If that were to be the case, why wouldn't the government tax me each time I mow my lawn?  After all, if I had hired someone to mow my lawn, I would have paid $25, and they would have paid taxes on it.

What about every time I have sex with my wife?  If I had sex with a prostitute, I would have had to pay for it, and that's taxable income.

I also read in the new PC Gamer Mag, that in China most of the gold farmers are indeed gang members.  They are able to obtian these job becuase they don't pay well.  Pc Gamer went as far as saying, "atleast something good is coming out of gold farming" meaning keeping the "thugs" off the streets of China. 

Yet again i am amazed at the outright stupidity shown.

How hard is it to realize theres a difference between taxing virtual items and taxing REAL cash PROFIT  gained thru the sale of virtual items....

In other words , for those of you among the thinking impaired , you can have trillions of virtual in game currency,or virtual items that people might pay large amounts of cash virtual or real cash  for, and be under NO tax obligation.

Its ONLY when REAL world cash comes into a persons possession as PROFIT, that said person becomes obligated to pay taxes on said REAL WORLD cash.AND since in the case of virtual item sellers, REAL world cash comes into their possession thru the sale of virtual world goods, the REAL world cash that qaulifies as profit is taxable.

Originally posted by wjrasmussen

Originally posted by Blodpls

This makes gold farming in China basically a 100% legitimate business and therefore the beneficiary of all the advantages that this status has to offer. 

 

Better re-read that.  They are taxing it and therefore making a crime to not pay the taxes.  It still is illegal to trade in virtual property in china, now they have an easier way to arrest you.  Just like the USA did to Al Capone, they nailed him on tax evasion not on organized crimes he did.

Hey they captured Al Capone, nice to hear that they finally got that bastard
 

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Originally posted by Blodpls

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Originally posted by wjrasmussen

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Originally posted by Blodpls

This makes gold farming in China basically a 100% legitimate business and therefore the beneficiary of all the advantages that this status has to offer. 

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Better re-read that.  They are taxing it and therefore making a crime to not pay the taxes.  It still is illegal to trade in virtual property in china, now they have an easier way to arrest you.  Just like the USA did to Al Capone, they nailed him on tax evasion not on organized crimes he did.

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It doesn't say anywhere that's it's illegal to trade in virtual items in that article, it says there are restrictions.
Regarding Al Capone, modern taxed beverage companies make vastly larger sums of money and produce much greater quantities of alcohol than Al Capone ever did.  They can get bank loans to set up business, their employees have the relevent rights like other legitimate companies, they can be made public companies and their stocks traded. 
There are large amounts of money that can be made through virtual items, this is bringing it into the fold of regular, legitmate business it is not a measure to stop it.           

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Bingo! Like any business you have to pay taxes so gold/item farming businesses should not be different if they are generating real world profits from their online activities.

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Originally posted by Reborn17
They, and any govt that wants to tax virtual currency, can go to hell. Oppressive politician bastards.

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/knee jerk reaction + poor reading comprehension FTL!

There have only been 2 other people in this whole thread who has actually understood what is happening. Everyone else has mis-read the article!

The ingame currency  of lets say WOW is not being taxed by the Chinese government. I will repeat that once more, China is not going to tax WOW gold!

What China is going to do, is tax the profits those goldfarming companies make. So, for example, if one goldfarmer can grind 250G per hour in WOW which can be sold for, say $5, and the goldfarmer is paid at a rate of $1 per hour, and the total running costs of the computer is another $1 per hour; then that $3 per hour profit will be taxed.

If you think about it logically, there would be no way of implementing a taxation of a virtual currency like WOW gold. Just imagine they could somehow! What could a government do with this WOW gold? They couldn't build new hospitals or roads or whatever with WOW gold, could they?

The only way the Chinese government could use a online game currency to fund real world projects, would be to sell the gold to gamers themselves! The Chinese government would then effectively be the biggest goldseller in the world!