Hi,
first of all:
+REP goes to
Commodore for a brilliant text that forced me to finally clean my monitor again,
and to
James O'Neill for a sound analysis - very close to what I thought I'd write reading the thread!
I'm rather sure most of us are living in areas where nearly all income is taxable anyway.
And I'm rather sure, most of us are benefiting of it, too - guess we all enjoy the highways allowing us to reach any destination very fast, as well as the hospitals that patch us up again, without asking for payment first, if we tried to reach our destination too fast.
Many will appreciate the existence of the police that tries to keep the number of "too fasts" low, thus drastically increasing the odds of our children to survive childhood. And that does a quite good job to keep the "lootable PvP" areas limited ...
Further it might be considered a good idea not to have to hire a teacher yourself, to teach your children - could be quite costly ...
For sure I agree that a lot of our taxes are not spent in our own substantial interest, but this is another story. And for sure I agree that the police isn't just a blessing, very often it's way more dangerous to us ourselves than we wished.
This might be because both, the way taxes are spent, and the way the police is ordered, isn't necessarily what we desired, and we cannot simply change it - it might require a majority, and since easily influenced idiots are breeding at a breathtaking rate such might be hard to reach!
Anyway, should you be tired of this, too, think of
alternatives. My Opalo is in very good condition, and I always have an emergency reserve of Med Weapon Cells, so no problem to do a small
mutation. I might be with you, and together we might succeed to follow the
advice a wise man once provided. ;-))) (*1, *2)
Well, seriously now.
Income is taxed nearly everywhere. There's holes in the law, unavoidably - things are evolving fast, and making new laws is a long, laboriously process (at least it should be - a lot of implications to think of!). So it doesn't make me wonder that the possibility to earn income from virtual worlds hasn't been addressed earlier, it's quite new.
And it doesn't make me wonder that tax offices all over the world now start to get long teeth - doesn't especially MA advertise (if they do at all) EU as a way to "make real money"? Well, not only MA, Linden too, quite some more in the line, and the RL money aspect of "traditional MORPGS" cannot be ignored, too - after all it's way more easy (and less time/ money consuming, compared to EU) to earn some nice RL coins farming evil monsters with your Tauren hunter - weren't there these nasty Gnomish rogues populating your fur, making you scratching over and over ...
Anyway, even now it should be theoretically taxable if we make a decent profit in a virtual world. Laws usually are aiming wide, and I'd not bet that a tax investigator finding the (imaginatory, unfortunately) 20K $$$ withdrawal from the selling of my (imaginatory, unfortunately) ModFAP wouldn't get very excited!
An (anonymous) ATM card would have hindered this, and this is why I think they're holding back - MA for sure doesn't want to annoy any authorities, given the tiny line they're walking in regard to "gambling" ...
So all that happens is that tax offices are now thinking of ways to make this more easy for their tax inspectors. Income generated in virtual RCE worlds will be taxed, you can be sure. And I cannot even be angry about:
Why should the guy that sunk 100K $/ EUR into EU to resell high end stuff should be tax-free, while I myself, that have sunk a multiple of $/ EUR into building a company, and creating quite some full time jobs, should pay the full tax - for him, too?
No way we'll avoid the tax, it's just a matter of time. And it's fair, too. Why should people that use new technology bolt holes have an advantage compared to, let's say, the business man that delivers you fresh bread & milk every morning? Would you like him to drown under massive tax pressure & create a tax free service of virtual wares in EU/ SL? Would you like to receive your bread & milk virtually, every morning when you log on? Enjoy your meal!
It is a very important theme, and I'm very disappointed by the way the RCE company's are handling this. IMHO it would now be the time to massively do lobby work, to teach them politicians what's the matter, to try to help to find a solution that would help to satisfy all parties.
We can be sure the politicians that will vote over the new tax law don't have any clue what they're voting about, and we can be sure, too, that the closed circles developing these laws will not have much knowledge of RCE's, too - they'll maybe will know how to get rid of Gnomish rogue disease if you're a Tauren, if at all.
There's a simple way how to handle tax in RCE's that wouldn't hurt any participant but notorious tax evaders:
- Any withdrawal is to adduce, and it's regarded as income and treated as such
- Any deposits in the given year are considered "costs" and can be deducted to reduce the withdrawals sum
- Only if the result (withdrawals sum - sum of deposits) is reaching a certain threshold (10K PED?) it's regarded as actually taxable, lower values would be regarded as "gaming luck" or small scale gambling/ betting etc.
- Should then actually a tax obligation arise, it would be treated like any other tax obligation, means: If you have loss next year, you'd be entitled to get back a part of what you payed.
Not this difficult, using no other methods than that that are in place anyway.
What the RCE industry has to realize is that they're not anymore beyond all reckoning. That they have to actively participate in the securing of their business model, now. Sitting back, relaxed, watching their participants getting !!!!! (earnestly harassed) by the tax men isn't exactly what I'd name "successful business practice".
Have fun!
*1: This paragraph, starting with "
Anyway, should you be tired of this ..." is meant satirical! Don't try this at home, and don't try to use your Opalo against the legal forces in your country! Results could be hurting! And don't allow your children to read!
*2: I've used some youtube links to some eternal great moments of pop, to paint what I'm talking about. Preview worked, and multiple checking of "
The Eternal Tome of the countless Rulez" hasn't got a hit, too - but I guess I'd better tell you what I meant:
- "alternatives" - The Beatles, Revolution
- "mutation" - The Rolling Stones, Street fighting man
- "advice" - Bob Marley, Crazy Baldheads
Mod, feel free to delete the links if you find them violating "
The Eternal Tome of the countless Rulez", but plz tell me because of what §§§. I'm always ready to learn. Thx.
. Should we expect EU crash then ? 
exactly, its not somthing thats suddenly going to occur without massive implications. other than VAT harmonisation across the EU (and in principle at that, not exact rate) i know of no cross border taxation. Its slightly poor from both the BBC reporter and the online experts that none of them have noted this, but then when have media and experts let sensible points get in the way of a story. there has been no agreement other than to leave alone the issue of taxation with regards to regular internet trading, why on earth would govenments deal with virtual worlds before that.
