Real Taxes on Virtual Transactions

The best things in life are free, but sooner or later the
government will find a way to tax them.
~Author Unknown

The following article is how HM (His Majesty's) Revenue and Customs is looking into taxing the wealth that some British citizens are making on Second Life. Can the Internal Revenue Service be far behind? So, I guess if you are investing in the virtual world, you would do best to stick to virtual T-bills. LOL

Tax office tackles growing trade in virtual items for real money - Independent Online Edition > Business News

Direct from the article:

HMRC has a bot, known as Xenon, which trawls the internet in search of people who using the web to trade but not paying taxes. He said it was possible that Xenon could track down someone who was making substantial profits through a game such as Second Life. (read complete article)

I leave you with this:

The more you earn, the less you keep,

And now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray the Lord my soul to take,

If the tax-collector hasn't got it before I wake.

~Ogden Nash

Tags: virtual profits, real taxes, HMCR, IRS