STUMP » Articles » Taxing Tuesday: Don't Worry, Gamers...plus: Soda Tax Retrospective! » 18 February 2020, 19:05

Where Stu & MP spout off about everything.

Taxing Tuesday: Don't Worry, Gamers...plus: Soda Tax Retrospective!  

by

18 February 2020, 19:05

Oh, IRS, you so silly.

IRS quietly deletes guideline that Fortnite virtual currency must be reported on tax returns

Before I quote the piece, [or even read it], I will guess that this idiocy probably came out of Bitcoin issues. So let’s see if I was correct:

For months leading up to this tax season, a section of the IRS’s website advised players of Fortnite, the popular online video game, that their use of in-game virtual currency could be subject to federal taxes.

The little-noticed provision, which dated back at least to October according to the cached version of an IRS webpage on Archive.org, appeared to mark the first time the agency has ruled on video game currencies, including Fortnite’s V-bucks, purchased with real dollars. By applying the same policy to in-game money that it enforces on bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, the IRS guide seemed poised to affect millions of gamers — or their parents.

Okay, that was an easy guess. I knew this didn’t come from something completely idiotic to begin with. As much as one likes to joke about the IRS, they’ve actually got a bunch of really knowledgeable people working on policy issues.

[I don’t want to get into the exact details, but I recall arguing with people re: an insurance reserving change, and I said it absolutely did not conform with IRC definitions of tax reserves, and made the argument that, months later, the IRS folks made. “They’re not gonna take CTE 70! CTE 0, perhaps!” … which is exactly what they said. They know what they’re talking about.]

So, it’s not surprising to me that they’ve also backed down re: in-game money [unless you actually cash it out in some manner, in which case yes, it’s income. You have to report it.]

MEEP TAX REPORT: CT REFUND BACK, NOBODY ELSE

Just checking right now — neither the NY nor federal returns are back yet. But then, CT was the largest of the refunds.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: SODA TAX!

Last Friday, I did a little tweetstorm revisiting my posts on the soda tax, which, incidently, sprouted Taxing Tuesday later.

The tweet thread starts here.

And it ends here:

For convenience, you can read the whole thread at Thread Reader App.

And who knows, with Mike Bloomberg in the race, perhaps we’ll get RETURN OF SODA TAX?

TAX STORIES

MmmHmmm.

[sipping my hard cider]

TAX TWEETS


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