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"Sweden Looks to Bring Taxes In-World" - Virtual World News
SuezanneC Baskerville
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04-16-2008 22:14
From: someone
A year ago Sweden moved to tax real-money transactions for virtual goods--a fairly reasonable step as each transaction immediately provides real, measurable income to one party. According to a statement posted on the Swedish Tax Agency's website 9 days ago, "Virtual worlds — value-added tax," the agency is looking to tax in-world transactions even before they are converted to real currency.


http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/04/sweden-looks-to.html#more
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Raymond Figtree
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04-16-2008 22:24
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Blot Brickworks
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04-16-2008 22:27
Interesting,I wonder what a Swedish Kroner is worth.Actually I would not mind occurring in Sweden.
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Max Herzog
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04-16-2008 22:32
From: Blot Brickworks
Interesting,I wonder what a Swedish Kroner is worth.Actually I would not mind occurring in Sweden.


Just under 6 kroner to the dollar.

Occurring in Sweden is a marvellous thing. One of the best moves I ever made.
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Bree Giffen
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04-17-2008 00:06
Uhm was that sarcasm?
Max Herzog
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Join date: 9 Jul 2006
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04-17-2008 00:40
From: Bree Giffen
Uhm was that sarcasm?


From me? God no. I moved here 6 months ago, and it would take a king's ransom to lure me back to London.

The quality of life here is amazing. I couldn't be happier.
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Conifer Dada
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Join date: 6 Oct 2006
Posts: 3,716
04-17-2008 02:39
Maybe we should all start using green 'pay' lines round our homes more so we can all play at taxes!
I had a neighbour who had pay lines, with a L$1 entry fee. He bought the land, put a house on it and never came back, as far as I know, in a year. I never paid the L$1, and eventually the land went back to the governor for auction.
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Phil Deakins
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04-17-2008 03:12
The article makes it sound reasonable at first thought, as it applies to people who live in Sweden and earn significant money from SL. But what is more interesting to me is the website of Entropia Universe that the article links to. It sounds like it's an up and running SL alternative with a real population already. I'll have to have a look inside. It's name "Entropia" might not have been the best choice though :)
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Joy Iddinja
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04-17-2008 04:44
How can you tax something that doesn't exist? I guess the Sweeds can tax anything, but I hope the US and other countries have a bit more common sense. I believe SL income should be taxed, but only once converted to actual RL currency, where it can be used to imporve ones RL. In world, it's still just monopoly money and should remain such.
Phil Deakins
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04-17-2008 05:15
Yes, but the article says that it would apply to people who are making a significant amount of RL money from it. VAT is a purchase tax that we have to pay when buying most things. It's as well as income tax.
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Shinru Spyker
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04-17-2008 05:28
but not everyone lives in sweden. so would they only tax those who are in sweden or everyone?
SuezanneC Baskerville
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04-17-2008 05:33
Good lord - you're just hearing of Entropia?

You might want to follow http://forums.hipihi.com/forum.jhtml?action=index&bid=68

Project Entropia and Entropia Universe are games. They have rules and goals and scores and other attributes of games.

They look real nice. I don't think they have inworld building, custom animations, scripting, the ability to import buildings, etc. They do have an economy though in addition to the game.
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So long to these forums, the vBulletin forums that used to be at forums.secondlife.com. I will miss them.

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Max Herzog
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04-17-2008 05:41
From: Shinru Spyker
but not everyone lives in sweden. so would they only tax those who are in sweden or everyone?


Hopefully everyone, creating huge tax revenue and increasing my standard of living even further :D
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Phil Deakins
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04-17-2008 06:20
From: SuezanneC Baskerville
Good lord - you're just hearing of Entropia?
I'd heard of it before, when it was mentioned in threads about SL alternatives, but I'd never looked at it or its site. Since I posted about it in this thread, I've signed up, downloaded (over an hour at ~370KB/sec) and tried unsuccessfully to log in. In the process, I realised that it's a game, as you said, and not an alternative to SL at all.
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Phil Deakins
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04-17-2008 06:21
From: Shinru Spyker
but not everyone lives in sweden. so would they only tax those who are in sweden or everyone?
It's just for people living in Sweden, but if they do it, it would mean that anything that a liable person sells in SL would have to have VAT added - or the seller would need to absorb the VAT in the selling price.
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Chip Midnight
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04-17-2008 07:13
There was an article in Forbes about taxation in virtual worlds the other day, detailing competing theories about how it should be done. Some academics argue that taxation should occur each time there's a transaction of virtual currency. Others (the sane ones) argue that it should only apply when virtual money is coverted to real currency, which is how it already works. We have to claim that as income.

http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/04/15/taxes-congress-virtual-biz-beltway-cz_ae_0416beltway.html
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Trout Recreant
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04-17-2008 08:56
From: Raymond Figtree


Hilarious!
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Ciaran Laval
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04-17-2008 09:35
From: Chip Midnight
There was an article in Forbes about taxation in virtual worlds the other day, detailing competing theories about how it should be done. Some academics argue that taxation should occur each time there's a transaction of virtual currency. Others (the sane ones) argue that it should only apply when virtual money is coverted to real currency, which is how it already works. We have to claim that as income.



If taxes were applied here inworld on transactions, then tax deductables would have to apply too and that really would make matters overly complicated when the simple solution is to tax when a virtual currency becomes real.
Phil Deakins
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04-17-2008 09:41
From: Chip Midnight
There was an article in Forbes about taxation in virtual worlds the other day, detailing competing theories about how it should be done. Some academics argue that taxation should occur each time there's a transaction of virtual currency. Others (the sane ones) argue that it should only apply when virtual money is coverted to real currency, which is how it already works. We have to claim that as income.

http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/04/15/taxes-congress-virtual-biz-beltway-cz_ae_0416beltway.html
But the Swedish thing is about VAT, and not about taxing profits. In Europe, VAT has to be charged to the customer for most purchases when the seller's sales exceed a certain amount of money per quarter. That's what the article is about - making people living in Sweden charge VAT on sales. Taxing the profits is completely seperate, and in addition.
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Yumi Murakami
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04-17-2008 09:55
From: someone
Even more interesting, any sale involving a Swedish party, regardless of whether he or she is a buyer or seller or the nationality of the other party, is considered as occurring in Sweden.


I think they're going to find the slight problem with that rule, when they try to arrest or investigate someone for paying the tax, and they're not there...
Chip Midnight
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04-17-2008 09:59
From: Phil Deakins
But the Swedish thing is about VAT, and not about taxing profits. In Europe, VAT has to be charged to the customer for most purchases when the seller's sales exceed a certain amount of money per quarter. That's what the article is about - making people living in Sweden charge VAT on sales. Taxing the profits is completely seperate, and in addition.


Oh I know. Just pointing out the article for anyone who may have missed it. The vultures are circling all over the world.
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Phil Deakins
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04-17-2008 10:08
From: Yumi Murakami
I think they're going to find the slight problem with that rule, when they try to arrest or investigate someone for paying the tax, and they're not there...
That's how it would have to be. It means that a seller in Sweden would have to charge VAT, and a buyer in Sweden could claim the VAT back if the purchase had VAT on it, and if the buyer is VAT registered.
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Darien Caldwell
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Join date: 12 Oct 2006
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04-17-2008 12:22
From: SuezanneC Baskerville
A year ago Sweden moved to tax real-money transactions for virtual goods--a fairly reasonable step as each transaction immediately provides real, measurable income to one party.


The only major party receiving real, measurable income is Linden Lab. :)
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Cocoanut Koala
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04-17-2008 13:08
I hate VAT.

And I'm not even European.

coco
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Shinru Spyker
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Join date: 10 Nov 2007
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04-17-2008 13:13
why should i have to pay a tax for a country i dont live in? why do i get in return?
but then i pay taxes in america and get nothing in return because most of it is being sent to iraq, not sent, waisted.