One For You, Nineteen For Me

Less than a year after my post "Easy Come Easy Go" (see January 2006 archive), CNet reported in December of 2006 that governments are becoming aware of the massive amount of assets held by virtual gamers, which makes taxation "inevitable." Jim Miller, an economist working with Congress, suggests that not only could the IRS become involved in tax policy, but Congressional oversight of virtual worlds could also be in our future. Inheritance taxes could also be affected by the value of the deceased's virtual assets.
I'm neither an economist nor a lawmaker nor a lawyer, but it seems to me that the players who are in the virtual world business for serious money would simply respond to such legislation with the same tactics used to minimize the impact of real-world wealth. That is, anonymous off-shore accounts, tax-deferred forms of investments, assigning the wealth to a business entity rather than an individual person, and so on. And wouldn't that open the door to virtual write-offs? Donate $200,000 of virtual property to your favorite charity and get a sweet deduction.