Next avatar on Second Life: the Swedish taxman

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2007

STOCKHOLM (AFP) — Swedes earning tax-free money on Internet games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life may have to think again after Swedish authorities said they were planning a clampdown.

"We're not interested in ordinary gamers, 99 percent of them play for the sake of playing," Dag Hardysson, head of the Internet trade division of the Swedish tax authority, told AFP.

"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."

He cited as an example a player in World of Warcraft who advances to a higher level and earns a virtual weapon which he then sells to another player for real money.

"That should be taxed as income, because he has worked...