3pointD.com

Add Sweden’s to the growing list of governments considering taxing monetary transfers from virtual worlds, if not the in-world earnings themselves. According to an AFP story, Swedish authorities are “planning a clapdown.” Said one Swedish taxman, “Most people play and keep their money on their game account, but if they move it out of the virtual world into the real world, then we’re interested in them.” Any move is at least two to three years away. The U.S. Congress seems to be moving more slowly on looking into the issue, but is headed in the same direction. In a way, this is an encouraging sign, in that with taxation most often comes some compensatory protection of rights. If my activities in a virtual world can be considered, in some way, to be work or investment, they should be due similar protections to other forms of work or investment. Note that the Swedish taxman is not contemplating exactly that, but is looking only at transfers of cash from virtual worlds into the real world. Still, it pushes virtual activities closer to the status of the real. Good thing? [Via SL Insider.]