中国开始对虚拟货物交易征税：其他国家会效法吗？
福布斯 11月4日
在中国，任何虚拟商品的卖家——从大型多玩家在线游戏中交易的金子到虚拟世界中的服装设计——将面临交易收入20%的征税。
《金融时报》报道，中国国家税务总局称，虚拟商品市场——据某些报道，一个14.5亿美元(100亿人民币)的行业——将实行和房地产业等其他产业同样的税率。
In China, sellers of anything virtual -- from the gold that is traded in MMO (massively multiplayer online) games to couture designs in virtual worlds -- will now face a 20% tax on any real-world revenue from those sales.
The FT reports that China’s State Administration of Taxation has said that the virtual-goods market -- a $1.45 billion (10 billion yuan) industry by some accounts -- is subject to the same tax rates levied on real estate and other markets.
——回溯先前的法规：中国已经不止一次试图控制虚拟和真实世界经济之间那条模糊的界线了。去年，政府严厉制裁了虚拟货币，禁止用虚拟货币购买实体商品，阻止虚拟卖家在现实世界逐利。这次的新法规与之前的规定相冲突，但此技术丑闻被大众忽视了。
——但到底怎么实施呢：我们知道虚拟经济会被现实世界的金融风暴危及，但这条新议案引发了一个问题，当局能否通过现实手段大规模地精确追踪记录虚拟交易并对其征税。管制至少十种不同的虚拟货币很可能相当复杂，但如果中国成功了，其他虚拟经济迅速发展的国家（比如美国）很可能会效仿。
—Backtracking on a previous ruling: This is not the first time that China has tried to regulate the blurry line between virtual and real-world economies. Last year, the government cracked down on virtual currencies, forbidding the use of virtual money for the purchase of real items, and prohibiting virtual sellers from flipping for a real-world profit. This new law contradicts that ruling, which Techdirt notes was largely ignored anyway.
— But how would they make it work: We’ve seen that virtual economies can be affected by real-world financial turmoil, but this new proposal raises the question of whether authorities can use real methods to accurately track and tax virtual sales on a massive scale. The logistics behind regulating at least 10 different kinds of virtual currency are likely very complex, but if China is successful, other countries with burgeoning virtual economies (like the U.S.) may follow suit.