IRS Looking to Tax Virtual Goods

National taxpayer advocate Nina Olsen delivered her 2008 Annual Report to Congress last week, and the lack of laws regarding the transactions of virtual goods was brought up as a prime area of concern. The US government is now stepping up research into ways to tax and regulate the virtual economy of online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft which are estimated to contain yearly transactions totaling over $1 billion. The US is not alone in trying to get a piece of this digital income, Sweden is currently working on similar tax laws, and Korea has been taxing transactions in virtual worlds since 2007.

[via Inside Social Games]