The Lawbringer: Mailbag 2.0

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-25-2011 @ 4:27PM

Peter said...

The reason Blizzard is so dead set against real money trading is that is a key part of their strategy to fend off ill-advised taxation initiatives. It has come up before and they were able to say "Hah, tax what exactly? Its not real and has no correlation between real world currency."

But the moment that a reliable gold to dollar conversion rate happens, you can be sure that somebody looking to fill in for a budget shortfall will get ideas again that the state sales taxes should apply.

Yes it is preposterous, but the consequences are too horrible to risk.

3-26-2011 @ 5:31PM

Sally Bowls said...

And why do you think something has to be real to be taxed? Have you thought about this?

Just because you can't go to Walmart, hold it in your hand and see the price tag does not mean it does not have value. In the USA, the IRS gets involved in all sorts of intangible things. An example from March is that people donate tens of thousands of dollars for the right to buy Duke basketball tickets. That privilege of buying tickets results causes you to pay more taxes by reducing your deduction. BTW, donating to Duke football merely gets you committed. :-)

If a contest prize was backstage access to the Super Bowl/World Cup/Oscars, do you think the official IRS ruling would be " Its not real and has no correlation between real world currency." so no problem, there is no tax event here. I feel you seriously underestimate the reach of the IRS.

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