South Korea Now Taxes MMOs

July 1st, 2007 by James Hyde in Business, MMO, Multiplayer, Online, PC

South Korea, with one of the biggest MMO crowds in the world, is now taxing virtual goods and assets. Starting today, a value added tax (VAT) is added to virtual items sold and bought online. The summary of the law reads:

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

But in the majority of games, the virtual goods still belong to the developer/publisher, as covered by the terms and rules. And in that case, as Kotaku points out, who is responsible for paying the tax? Overall it seems as a pretty rushed move by South Korea to cash in on the MMOs.

Tags: Business, MMO, Multiplayer, Online, PC