BBC News reports the US congress is 'looking into' trading that takes place in games. I guess they are maybe seeing if the internets and their clogged tubes are being stopped up by too many gold coins being in them.

I can see our IRS saying:
"You traded... 60,000 gold coins in an ORPG this year, so you need to file a V(irtual)-W10 form and declare your own income."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6065534.stm

*laughs*

That would be in addition to our "voluntary compliance" of forking over real money as well?

*looks through my NPC description file*

Uh -oh I don't have an IRS Tax Agent NPC. Does that mean my shard is in violation of the "Required Virtual IRS Agent" regulation for MMPORG?

The plethora of jokes that can come out of this aside, a few notes;

First of all, my understanding is the issue being looked into here is with people who, for example, sell gold/items on E-Bay and make real money from it. Specifically mentioned in a story I saw on this was the game 'Second Life', which actually makes a big deal about how you can buy/sell for real money in the game.

Next, my understanding also was that some of those involved in doing this are doing so to prevent premature attempts to tax this sort of 'income', without truly understanding what it is, whether it should be taxed and, if so, how best to do so.