November 21, 2007 by Jezebel Bailey
You know I was sitting in the Emergency Room with my mom at hmmmm 3a.m. this morning....reading an August edition of Time magazine. Flipping through the pages I see, oh what do you know?....an article about Second Life....Second life and taxes.....I do not recall (famous last words) the dollar amount they say people made in Second Life......and if the government should tax those monies....well I for one hope they do!
If they start taxing land sales and income from virtual clothing and furniture,then those of us who lost money on land sales...or property that was taken by landbots (had to get that one in there), or even lost inventory from glitches in the system....well hell.....how much money DO we lose in a year?.....Even those club owners who invest and invest (isn't furniture and paying for live entertainers an automatic opening loss?) and get little in return except satisfaction..would I have to fill out a virtual tax form? is tier considered land taxes, after all I pay more in tier than I do in real life land taxes..or just another business expense writeoff? Can't own the business without land to put it on.....wow, I wonder what my tax refund would actually be in Second Life! :/ would they pay me in Lindens? Would they send me to the virtual debtors prison for non payment? Hmmm......wonder if they have virtual species seperations....furries in one cell, aliens in another?
You think of strange things at 3 am sitting in the ER
OOO wow....wonder what my business losses would be selling 133,500 Linden land for 1L! Investment capital minus business income.....hahaha a glitch would be a natural disaster and we could even get Emergency funding when Philip Rosendale declares Glitch# 2045 was the worst glitch ever....millions of people lost thousands of dollars ...... Relief funds needed... for those of you who would like to help you can make a donation to the 2nd Life Red Cross....
----just a thought---
Would it be considered theft when our things start disappearing?....Lindens watch out!
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The tax man
Has already cometh for me with 17.5% on tier payments and land purchases directly from Linden Lab! Of course despite being taxed, billed and shafted LL still require ID verification to believe I'm really me.
Hope your Mom's OK
And yes, if the tax man cometh, he better bring tax breaks. Heck, virtual worlds may be the next tax shelter. After all, you could rip yourself off through an alt and claim a tax break on the loss.
Which gets back to why Linden Lab needs to address some issues. Maybe... just maybe... taxes will become seen as good. It would require Linden Lab to be more accountable.
Probably never happen...
Second Life Consultant
My thoughts exactly! If
My thoughts exactly! If they can tax...they can tax break!
On the flip side of ripping yourself off..who would arrest you for stealing? SL police?
Jez Bailey
and who would convict you?
the SL Courts? haahah, we can count the people there, virtual or otherwise, on less than one hand. Seems to me the business losses, sin taxes, anything incredibly popular and lucrtive in R/L will remain back where the virtual cigarettes, virtual booze, and things are all but locked away.
from rueters...
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"For example, in Second Life up to US$500,000 in user-to-user transactions take place every day, and the economy is growing by 10 to 15 percent a month.
“Ownership, property rights, all that stuff needs to be decided. There’s just too much money floating around,” game designer Sam Lewis, who trained as an economist and has worked on games such as Star Wars Galaxies, said in a telephone interview. “The tax laws don’t know how to behave because these are virtual items: ones and zeros on a database we’re allowing you to play in,” he said."
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Well, we don't have to rehash your property rights issues here and now, they are well known.
Accountability?...well, you have already touched on the police and courts, -and we know what they are comprised of basically, so we are left with...
profit? income? YEPPERS...expect more taxation. After all, there is no judge, jury, or a great deal of debate in ...
an sql query far more complex, but like SELECT ALL from USERS where (LANDOWNERS=1 AND LAND_VALUE>0))...etc etc. will leave no appeal, no judges name, and certainly no jury of your peers.
I'm just waiting for the tax code to include churches and reservations, I'm sure some of my ancestors knew a native american, and VR needs a Metachurch of the Our Lady Holy Rollers" anyway. We could gamble in the name of religious freedom. Praise Jesus, pass the poker chips!
Note: NO offense meant to native americans or those with strong religious beliefs, --it was a tax issue and the law.
Hehe.
Well, people really don't grok that the statistics are inherently flawed when it comes to the user transactions. Reuters covered the story, but I couldn't find it there - here's a SLH reference:
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2006/11/linden_lab_boas.html
Aside from the commentary, the fact is that someone with a script easily screwed up those transactions. It wouldn't be too difficult to artificially inflate them again, though Linden Lab may have made it a little more difficult to do.
In the end, those statistics are worth about as much as the swampland in Wyoming you were considering buying...
Second Life Consultant