Ravie Bunny

I am going to try to answer this question for you. I am very knowledgeable on this subject, as I run a fairly decent sized business in SL, and deal with taxes, etc. However, keep in mind I am not a CPA nor a tax attorney, so this isn't any kind of tax or financial advice. Additionally, please keep in mind I'm speaking in the context of federal taxes, as I live in a state with no state income tax. With that said, what Linden Lab is doing here is perfectly reasonable and expected except actually sending you the 1099-K this year (See final paragraph for details). For income tax purposes, the IRS does not care about L$. What they care about is the USD you get from L$. It is this way, because the L$ exchange is the centralized exchange, and not a decentralized one (eg: bitcoin). When you sell L$ through the lindex and get USD in your credit balance, that is the point the money belongs to you. You have gained income from the sale of the L$. Afterall, you're getting that L$ from somewhere, right? This is the moment you have received income from second life for tax purposes and are then liable for taxes on that income. Even if you ran a region and accepted donations and then sold the L$ to make tier, this is still income for tax purposes. There are ways you can structure this to avoid it, but you'd need to talk to a CPA for that. And those reading this that feel that it's not really income, I hope the IRS doesn't come after you. However, take my situation for a moment. I run a business here in Second Life. As such, I pay tier for several regions of mine that simply count as business expenses and in the end net zero tax liability. If I sell $3000 a month of L$ for 10 regions and all these regions I have gained $3000 of income, but if all these regions are used for my business then I have a $3000 business expense and this gets claimed as such resulting in no taxes due. The final part confuses me that you're receiving a 1099-K. It is my understanding, per the IRS rules, that you don't need to receive a 1099-K unless you have over $20,000 of income AND over 200 transactions. However, this changes in 2022 taxes thanks to Biden signing the "American Rescue" thing or something in March 2021. This year, however, you shouldn't be getting a 1099-K unless you hit the 20k income and over 200 transactions. Next year, though, you're really going to get *****ed, because you're going to get one from BOTH Linden Lab, as well as Paypal. Have fun explaining that one if you don't have some kind of tax representation. Then in 2023, you'll do your first filing with it. That's probably what Patch Linden is "looking into", because you most likely shouldn't have gotten one of those this year.

I have a need for a full sim builder to build sims, or update existing ones. I'm easy to work with and will pay well, but I am very exacting in what I want. Job Requirements English Speaking. Ability to organize things and have good skills when laying out lots of objects. Sketch out an idea of how the build will be before hand. You must be able to build to a general theme (eg: Fantasy, or Retrowave). You must be able to enter skill gaming regions. No exceptions. (If you cannot, please read here for information: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_FAQ#Why_can.E2.80.99t_I_access_a_Skill_Gaming_Region.3F ) You must build all components used in the build, or otherwise have full permissions of any objects used, with rights to transfer them to me in a build. You must be willing to build this exclusively for me, and give me the rights for me to use the build anywhere in SL as I like. You will be properly credited for the build, of course. You must be able to build across several connected regions, accounting for SL bugs, such as falling through geometry when walking across a sim crossing, etc. Please contact me in world (vexacion resident) for additional details or to ask me any questions. I will not be keeping up with the forum as well as I would in world.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Value_Added_Tax_(VAT)_Frequently_Asked_Questions#Linden_Lab_is_based_in_the_United_States._Why_are_you_charging_VAT_for_European_Residents.3F

re: the USA -- Depending on how you set up your tax situation in the USA (S Corp, etc) the taxes are generally quite minimal. If you're doing it all personal, then it's all just ordinary income for federal (For the average person this is gonna run in the 15-20% range), and state is whatever rules the state has. I'm in an income tax free state, and am setup as an S Corp for all my SL things, so the overall tax burden is less than what you pay in just VAT and all the tools I use to create content (Software purchases, computer cost, etc) are all expenses and thus not income that is taxed. You can get around the VAT problem with your region if you'd rent it from someone else. You'll pay more in rent than the region cost, but you'll pay less when you factor in VAT. I rent out several regions to people for this very purpose (but I'm not a land baron, I only rent to friends!). I am very sympathetic to you in general here since I'm a content creator myself have paid well into 5 figures of "fees" to the lab and feel the lab isn't really thinking this change through, but just being blunt here, your personal tax burden (35% income rate, and also the VAT rate) really isn't the fault of the lab. I mean, all us creators pay taxes (Assuming everyone is doing the right thing and reporting/declaring your income), some are going to pay more than others. For VAT, they have to follow the rules of your country, so the path to changing it starts with the people who legislate where you live. Anything that impedes further content in Second Life from being created is a stupid move on the part of the lab.

I have acquired a sim. Thanks to all who responded.

I am still looking for a sim, preferably from someone who isn't going to sell me one for $300 with tier due the next day.

Looking to buy a full sim, please message me in world.

I've emailed you and messaged you in world a bit ago.

You can have a lot of fun in Gaming Island, which is a Linden Lab run location to enjoy skill games in a free to play setting for everyone. http://secondlife.com/destination/gaming-island If skill games are not your thing, there are many other styles of games available. I see a lot of games from KR Engineering in a lot of places and I know Greed is popular, as is the board game parcheesi. Also, thanks for fixing the wiki, Tommy!

Just ask owners to ban you from the skill gaming regions. Unlike the previous post mentioned, nearly every owner today will, so long as they are able to (eg: regions we own). The owners today are much more professional than when it was wild wild west days. I've gone ahead and proactively banned you from my two skill gaming regions.

As I've created several popular Skill Gaming Addons, I figured I'd respond right quick. I wanted to point out that the add on policy is fine -- but this [slgaming-unapproved] does sends a bad message to player, as if we're running something we should not be or otherwise is against policy, even though the operators (ideally through their attorneys) have determined that it is infact, per policy and allowed. I have opened a case with the lab on this, requesting that this be changed to [slgaming-addon] or something similar. "unapproved" is ridiculous, and how no one thought this was a bad idea defies logic.

1 on 1 mentoring is indeed hard, but if you need help feel free to message me in world i'm always happy to help fellow scripters (for free)

Yes, she does have an agenda, Freya - you are perfectly correct. And as usual those with that agenda exist to tell others what they can and cannot do. Many women, myself included, love a lot of those fantasies the OP is railing against. So yes, Carlotta, Freya is correct: We're not interested in your silly senses of morality and out-dated shaming behavior, especially when you do it against other women. You don't get to choose how we enjoy SL. Go take your fight elsewhere, you'll find few on your side here.

In my mind, I think these are some of the causes: 1. The exchanges selling off their excess L$ inventory. This would cause a massive influx of L$ into the market, easily eating up all the 257 buy orders wiping them out. I suspect this still isn't done and there is still a lot of L$ to sell. 2. The way Linden Lab has been treating the skill gaming program is absolutely atrocious and many operators whom in the past would keep large L$ balances on hand are now cutting their balances and holdings, putting many more sell orders in than in the past. 3. A lot of people, in general, have been losing confidence in the Lab (myself included, sadly) and simply do not invest anymore here. Between the false DMCA garbage a lot of creators deal with, to their treatment of the Skill Gaming program, to the lack of common decency many large land owners get.. people are quite frankly just tired of Linden Lab -- and Sansar just adds to that. Also, the lindex exchange as been borked for awhile, actually -- ever since they announced the end of the 3rd party exchanges. I watch the lindex a lot, and the 257 buy orders had been teetering between 5 million and 25million for months and the sell orders have been over a hundred million for awhile. It just finally gave way and looks like it's here to stay.

I have found what I needed, thanks to all that responded to me for this