Congress to Reconvene on Virtual Goods Taxation

So you found a shiny new mace last night, and then proceeded to make a (virtual) mint off its sale. Awesome. But before you go rushing off to the mount vendor, you may want to make sure your books are in order. Dan Miller, a member of Congress' Joint Economic Committee, told News.com on Friday that the committee will deliver a report on the taxation of virtual goods during the Congressional recess next month. What does this mean? Well, the issue's been floating around for a while, with Congress and the IRS trying to plot the course for this new frontier. Says Miller:

Given growth rates of 10 to 15 percent a month, the question is when, not if, Congress and IRS start paying attention to these issues," Miller, who is a fan of virtual worlds and economies, told CNET News.com in December. "So it is incumbent on us to set the terms and the debate so we have a shaped tax policy toward virtual worlds and virtual economies in a favorable way.

As News.com says, publishers will the ones that will have to perform the most serious logistical shuffles in response to what Congress determines. I suspect that the canniest ones, though, will have long since put some plans into action. It was just a matter of time, after all, before Uncle Sam decided to put his hand in the virtual cookie jar.

Congress set to issue virtual taxation report in August [News.com, via Slashdot]