The South Korean Supreme Court made a ruling last month that virtual currencies in digital worlds was legally exchangable for real world currency. They also noted that transactions of this type would be taxed as normal income. This type of taxation would have huge implications for game maker Zynga, which is reportedly on track to earn $300 million in revenue this year, of which over 90% is from the sale of virtual goods.
This would be a major source of revenue for the US government were they to tax online transactions. Would players still buy facebook poker chips in games like zynga poker, playfish poker or poker palace? Ofcourse, but they probably wouldn’t be too happy about it. Luckily for facebook poker lovers there aren’t any immediate plans for taxing virtual items just yet.
Full Article: http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/01/south-korea-rules-virtual-currency-on-par-with-real-money/
