3 ms·

> There's some capital gains! Are you really certain of this? Grinding and acquiring valuable inventory in a game is not necessarily the same kind of taxable e

by 3np 4y ago

> There's some capital gains! Are you really certain of this? Grinding and acquiring valuable inventory in a game is not necessarily the same kind of taxable event as buying/selling/trading. If so, why would this not be equally true for any digital game (see: any currently active MMO) with currency or items which can be sold between players in the exact same way? See Kaze404's sibling comment. I'm skeptic that it having blockchain/NFT components really changes anything at all wrt the legal tax situation. I'd think that in most jurisdictions you could technically incur capital gains through any kind of online game with a secondary market for in-game items but also have minimum thresholds under which reporting is not required ($60 in a year would generally fall under such limits).

swalsh 4y ago
It's true for the blockchain game because all blockchain transactions are taxable events. If you purchase crypto from an American exchange and transfer it to your wallet, the IRS will know your address. Even if all you do is play games, the IRS will know your address and validate you reported it on your taxes. The chain is public.
- 3np 4y ago
  > all blockchain transactions are taxable events Far from it, actually. > the IRS will know your address How easy it is to get caught if you neglect it is orthogonal to if it's required or not.
yorwba 4y ago
> If so, why would this not be equally true for any digital game (see: any currently active MMO) with currency or items which can be sold between players in the exact same way? It is already kind of true in non-blockchain games, but most of the accounting complexity is on the game company's end. This is described quite entertainingly in "Accounting for SaaS and swords" https://bam.kalzumeus.com/archive/accounting-for-saas-and-swords/ https://bam.kalzumeus.com/archive/accounting-for-saas-and-sw... But it probably helps if trading in-game items for real money is not an officialy supported feature of the game, so only items you actually bought come with an extra service contract attached that the company needs to honor.

by 3np 4y ago

swalsh 4y ago

It's true for the blockchain game because all blockchain transactions are taxable events. If you purchase crypto from an American exchange and transfer it to your wallet, the IRS will know your address. Even if all you do is play games, the IRS will know your address and validate you reported it on your taxes. The chain is public.

3np 4y ago
> all blockchain transactions are taxable events Far from it, actually. > the IRS will know your address How easy it is to get caught if you neglect it is orthogonal to if it's required or not.

yorwba 4y ago

> If so, why would this not be equally true for any digital game (see: any currently active MMO) with currency or items which can be sold between players in the exact same way? It is already kind of true in non-blockchain games, but most of the accounting complexity is on the game company's end. This is described quite entertainingly in "Accounting for SaaS and swords" https://bam.kalzumeus.com/archive/accounting-for-saas-and-swords/ https://bam.kalzumeus.com/archive/accounting-for-saas-and-sw... But it probably helps if trading in-game items for real money is not an officialy supported feature of the game, so only items you actually bought come with an extra service contract attached that the company needs to honor.