IRS Looking to Tax Virtual Goods
January 20th, 2009 
Business, Second Life, Social Media, Virtual Worlds 
Mark Kizelshteyn
As I’ve noted in an earlier post, the Chinese government took the lead on taxing virtual goods. Well, now the IRS is considering to follow that trend.
As PSFK writes, “National taxpayer advocate Nina Olsen delivered her 2008 Annual Report to Congress last week, and the lack of laws regarding the transactions of virtual goods was brought up as a prime area of concern. The US government is now stepping up research into ways to tax and regulate the virtual economy of online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft which are estimated to contain yearly transactions totaling over $1 billion. ”
This is a pretty significant number and is a low ball estimate. As we see this industry grow, we will see this number exponentially increase, which should be a pretty significant source of tax revenue for the government. We’ll see what Obama’s congress will do.
[Via PSFK]
Tags: Government, IRS, Second Life, Tax, Virtual Goods
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