Taxpayer Advocate Advocates Taxes
Meet Nina Olson, official IRS Taxpayer Advocate. Hi Nina!
Her job is to recommend to the IRS "how to improve the average consumer's tax-paying process."
So what is she doing to improve the tax-paying process? Why, she want to start extracting tax on the money people are earning selling avatar halter tops and hairdos in the online worlds like Second Life.
In her annual report she noted:
more than $1 billion changed hands in RMT [real money transactions in online worlds] during 2005, and that more than 16 million participate in virtual worlds "many of which have their own virtual economies and currencies."
Actually, this is probably a good thing. People who make part of their living in online worlds are currently operating in an uncertain legal environment in a variety of ways, and this will (legally, if not socially) make entrepreneurial avatars more legitimate.
For more on life Second Life, go here.