Archive for 6월, 2007
[ENG] RMT Taxation starts in Korea from 1 July 2007
by BettyBlue on 6.26, 2007, under 분류되지 않음
26 June 2007, Korea National Tax Service(NTS), equivalent to IRS in US, announced they would impose VAT (value added tax) on RMT (real money trading) from 1 July.
Source:http://www.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=200706260121
Sellers who do between 6 and 12 million won/half year in business will have VAT auto applied by transaction’s middle-man
Sellers who do more than 12 million won/half year in business will need a business license and will pay the tax by themselves
An official from NTS, Mr Choi said, “NTS would be able to track all transactions for taxation of virtual items – RMT.” Also, he added, “This is not about defining RMT legal/illegal; we don’t see any contradictory facts to Amendment for Game Industry Promoting Law -we are not about to judge if RMT is legal or not”
Interesting thing is game publishers are yet to announce anything of this issue. According to the TOS (Terms of Services) of game publishers, the items and currency which are traded for real money do not belongs to the gamer but to them. So what would happen if the game publisher levy on the items or currency which are involved in RMT?
Who actually have ownership of the virtual items and who are to be taxed?
Anyway, this announcement is based on the compromise of major RMT mediators who have promised to share their clients’ transaction details to authorities. Also, this is somewhat a notable result of negotiations and lobby which mediator companies have done; mediator companies get legal, big sellers get troubles. Mediator companies know that no matter what RMT will exist and they would rather sacrifice big sellers rather to close their services as it still makes big money.
Big sellers who are mostly exceeding the limit can’t stop selling and are not happy to pay tax and for them. Actually, for them, being tracked is a problem.
So what? They are waiting for alternative which system may occur soon.
Dumb and dumber brothers; NTS and MCT. (Ministry of Culture ＆ Tourism)
ⓒ BettyBlue
