Items in on-line games taxable?

[Captain Wrong]

One gamer longs to find out.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5199966

Personally I think this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. (I also find irony in the fact that he doesn't want to be "the guy" to cause a ruling on this by bringing it to the IRS, yet he goes on radio and writes a book about it bringing it to a lot of people's attention anyway.)

Your thoughts?

[Ed Oscuro]

ha ha HA HA AH AHAHAH

Can't really add much. It's potentially income, but if you're just trading items, how the hell can you put a value on that? It seems to me the guy wanted to be safe in case there already had been a ruling by the IRS. By far this is the biggest potential problem for online games - I've heard that some people worry about prostitution and the like, but that is a far, far second.

I mean hell, my own brother bought some stuff in WoW. Doubtlessly there are thousands of people that could suddenly have extra taxes.

I never catch the morning edition :(