According to Dibbell’s (2007) article, “Virtual Gold Could Draw Real Taxes,” the author shows us that the Joint Economic Committee of Congress will apply tax law to a virtual world. First, the author explains that MMOs’ companies try to control the trade of virtual money with real money that usually make illegal profit, but many users trade the virtual money like exchanging with other games’ money. Furthermore, people who play online games can meet easily the trade information, like on E-bay system. Next, the author explains that it is complicated to make a tax for it. Last, the author said that many gamers realized this situation, but it is unfair to conclude that the virtual world needs a tax system. If the government is concerned about this situation, people will lose opportunities to fulfill the tremendous potential of communication beyond playing the game.
Have you ever thought one image of items can make money in society? Nowadays many companies and individuals can make profits through selling the virtual money and goods. Actually, our economic system requires a tax on profit from any kinds of services and goods. However, most online game money exchangers do not pay any taxes, even though they have evened earn something like real money or virtual items. Moreover it is difficult to judge what profit is, because the virtual money usually cannot be defined like real money. Most gamers think that they should not need to pay taxes for virtual money because of several reasons.
First, it is too complicated to pay taxes. Usually paying taxes is concluded on labor and service, but most people who enjoy games think that the game is not for getting money. Many users paid money to play games, and the companies pay taxes on that earning. If the government is concerned with the paying of taxes in the virtual world, the players may pay double the taxes for it. Besides, recent online games have made profit all over the world. If people who want to make the tax laws in the virtual world apply a tax system in the online world, the companies and gamers will get confused about where they should pay the taxes. The biggest problem is that the virtual money system is still not treated as real now. Just some gamers know the value of the virtual money, but except for those gamers, most people could not know about that. So, paying taxes for the virtual money is not easy for many people to tax as real.
Paying taxes as gamers for the cyber money can make reasons that many gamers would leave that game. Most people enjoy the game to make stress go away. It means that the cyber world is different from the real world. There may not exist the stressful things, such as paying taxes, bullying somebody, ordering from a higher officer, or being chided by the parents. If the government is concerned with paying any sector in virtual world, it will make one of the reasons that gamers leave that game, because there will not be any differences with the real world. Also, it can cause the failure of companies, and other companies have to take that risk to make profits. So, it could make problems with both the companies and gamers.
Adjusting a tax system in the cyber world require lots of time and labor. The majority of countries have suffered problems with higher labor fees. If the government wants to make a tax law system in the cyber world, they will have to expand a number of people to take care of the cyber tax law. Actually, the cyber world has risks that it can disappear at any time for any reasons. For example, production companies can become bankrupt someday, or they can merge with any other game companies. If some people take care of an online world tax system, they could get confused from that. It means that the cyber world is incomplete to judge as the real world. So, it can cause the wasting of labor and time, because it could not need a tax system as the real society does.
In conclusion, many people pay taxes from any earning and spending in the real world. However, in the cyber world, it could not be possible to pay taxes in any sector in the cyber world. It should be a problem to make trade between the virtual money and the real money, but paying taxes in the cyber world can make problems in that would require a very complicated law, and it can make reasons for some gamers to leave. Also, it can cause wasting of labor and time, because it is not the real world. Therefore, the tax system in the online world can be considered impossible, and it has lots of risks for everyone.
Reference
Dibbell, J. (2007) Virtual gold could draw real taxes. About.com. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from http://pcworld.about.com/od/onlineentertainment/Virtual-Gold-Could-Draw-Real-T.htm
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