Suggestion: Sell Cash Services for Gold (bypass new Tax laws)

Community General Discussion
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Sell the in-game store character services, mounts, pets, and subscriptions for set amounts of gold, instead of for cash. It’s completely silly for states to be allowed to now tax the purchase of virtual non-existent goods, and this would be a good way to bypass such nonsense.

This way only the conversion of cash into gold can be taxed as is currently the case with wowtokens anyway, except now players won’t be unnecessarily taxed twice, or at all if they’re using virtual gold from a virtual world which is currently being taxed by states when converted into a wowtoken for virtual mounts/services. This also wouldn’t be any fiscal loss for Blizzard, since players who don’t have gold would be buying more taxable wowtokens to sell for gold.

If you’re reading this and out of the loop, try to purchase anything on battlenet (or Steam etc), virtual or otherwise, and you will see tax added to the total. This isn’t Blizzard’s fault but overbearing 2019 American legislation that is ignorantly taxing virtual purchases instead of just online shopping for physical material goods.

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You can, it’s called bnet balance

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Please Re-read, bnet balance is now taxed.

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You been getting taxed either way for years, nothing new

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Not when I use battle net balance, not here in CA. Dunno about your state, or how you attained your battle net balance (add it with cash? get it as a gift? add it with gold?), but I am not taxed on virtual goods I am purchasing with virtual cash (battle net balance.)

If you need a screenshot for proof (I dunno why - I’m supposed to accept your argument, right?), I can post it… but I went all the way to checkout and only stopped short of clicking “Pay Now.” The total was displayed and no tax was added.

I have receipts for purchases made after 1/01/19, those didn’t have tax added either, so… you wot?

If you buy virtual goods with cash, then maybe. I guess. I don’t spend actual cash on virtual goods, so I couldn’t say. What I can say is that I am not taxed on virtual -> virtual. So, selling items in the store for “set amounts of gold” would change nothing.

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Please Re-read, it’s new automated American legislation for 2019 where most of us haven’t been charged tax since vanilla, and it’s taxing virtual goods that have no bearing on access nor physical presence.

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I’ve been taxed for blizz virtual items for years

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CA is where Blizzard is so there may be some trickery there specifically. You are getting taxed 8.54% in CA now for any other online purchases now however, including Steam and whatnot.

You also have to get to the final page of the transaction, where you would click “confirm”, to see the Tax added to the total.

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Breakbeat says: “It doesn’t apply to me, so something else must be going on.”

Response: “It doesn’t apply to you, so something else must be going on.”

Breakbeat says: “I got to the final page of the transaction where I would click confirm, and no tax was added.”

Response: “You need to get to the final page of the transaction where you would click confirm, for tax to be added.”

WTH is wrong with people?

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I’ve never been charged tax for bnet balance purchases and I live in Georgia. The most recent was about a month ago when I pre-purchased WC3 Reforged.

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Could be a CA thing then. It definitely shows tax for me for absolutely everything, and I’m not alone:

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https://imgur.com/a/v5yZtGT

If you want me to click “Pay Now” for some kind of further proof, you’re going to need to gift me five bucks of battle net balance.

Anyone. And I’ll screenie it. As usual, to prove my point for the naysayers.

So, this is simply not true to any kind of full extent. It’s half truth, partial truth, whatever, directed at the “overbearing 2019 American legislation” that - proven right here, right now - doesn’t exist or doesn’t apply to what the OP says it does.

I’m vehemently against few things in life. One of them is dissemination of false or misleading information, which results in fear, misunderstanding, anger, and a host of other things that we do not need in our lives.

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virtual non-existent goods,

Virtual goods are tanglble and taxable. By law.

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No nay-saying here, as I stated above, CA may be an exception since you live in the same state as Blizzard Entertainment HQ. I can’t include links in my posts for some reason or I’d show you the taxes.

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A month ago wasn’t 2019.

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So… tax fraud then?

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You are becoming outlandishly triggered over nothing my friend. What I say is objectively true, as the other thread proves. You should bask in being an exception, for perhaps Blizzard games only, as a California resident. Ohio is not so luck.

Feel free to Google this phrase of a cnbc article: Here’s what that Supreme Court sales tax decision means for you

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Fair enough, but you watch this thread fill up with internet lawyering, those that are in staunch agreement with the OP, etc., etc., etc.

When what the OP posted isn’t necessarily true, and I posted an exception from the hip. If I actually put time into this and read the law, (OMG! WHAT!), then I am sure I would be able to explain more exceptions and circumstances where things aren’t taxed.

CA exception? OK, but on a 4.99 item, with a 4.99 price at checkout, there’s no sales tax, not baked in, not after the fact, not anywhere. Unless the item I showed in my screenie has a lower price somewhere else, which means mine has sales tax baked in.

So if CA is an exception, what are the other exceptions? Does the law say that virtual goods have to be taxed, except in the state where the company resides? Isn’t this generally the exact opposite of tax laws? For forty plus years, I’ve been taxed on goods I buy in-state, and not on goods I buy out-of-state.

So, what, this virtual goods tax law reverses that? Only for virtual goods?

OP isn’t accurate enough to hold weight. It smacks of some anti-government rhetoric pieced together by someone upset because they had to pay a few bucks in tax. It doesn’t even cite a single source, and no one cares. They just accept it, without question, for the most part.

Yet, if I said something about Wikipedia here (which cites all its sources), people would still go nuts because “Wikipedia is inaccurate; anyone can edit it.”

People just aren’t really that smart anymore.

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This will not work for them, these services should be free but look how much they charge. If we can pay with gold they make nothing, with Tokens someone needs to pay $20 for every $15 used.

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Correct. But not when purchased by in-game gold.

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