System and Method to Levy and Collect Taxes in a Virtual Environment
A virtual environment in which players are charged and able to charge taxes for various taxable activities. The tax may be levied by a governmental authority or other entity or by one or more characters in the metaverse. The tax may be imposed at the time of a taxable activity, at periodic intervals, or upon the occurrence of an event. The tax may be imposed for a specific purpose, e.g. to create a fund to use as insurance against possible harms, threats, or misdeeds, to protect the tax payers from impending or realized threats, or for any or no reason.
1 . A method comprising:
providing a metaverse wherein players interact with each other and an environment via characters that are physically manifested in the metaverse as avatars;
maintaining a virtual financial account for a character in the metaverse, wherein the virtual financial account includes information related to the current amount of available virtual funds in the character's possession;
monitoring the activities of the character in the metaverse;
determining if an activity is taxable;
determining the tax due for the activity; and
levying the tax due against the financial account.
2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising determining if there are sufficient funds in the virtual financial account to cover the tax due.
3 . The method of claim 2 further comprising assessing a penalty against the character if there are insufficient funds in the virtual financial account to cover the tax due.
4 . The method of claim 3 wherein the penalty is assessment of a real world currency fee against a real world financial instrument associated with the player controlling the character.
5 . The method of claim 1 wherein determining the tax due comprises determining a tax rate.
6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the tax rate is calculated in real time based on an identified revenue generation goal.
7 . The method of claim 5 wherein the tax rate is based on the total wealth of the character.
8 . The method of claim 5 wherein the tax rate is based on a player attribute associated with the character, wherein the player attribute is selected from the group consisting of: race, class and skill set.
9 . The method of claim 5 wherein the tax rate is based on the age of the character.
10 . The method of claim 5 further comprising determining whether the character is a member of a guild and the tax rate is based on the player's guild.
11 . The method of claim 1 further comprising determining that the character has created an item.
13 . The method of claim 11 further comprising determining that creating the item is a taxable activity.
14 . The method of claim 11 further comprising determining that the character has sold the item.
15 . The method of claim 14 further comprising determining that selling the item is a taxable activity.
16 . The method of claim 14 further comprising:
determining that a second character has purchased the item;
determining that purchasing the item is a taxable activity; and
levying a tax for the purchase of the item against a financial account associated with the second character.
17 . The method of claim 5 wherein the tax rate determined by one or more characters in the metaverse.
18 . The method of claim 1 further comprising assessing the tax at the time the taxable activity takes place.
19 . The method of claim 1 further comprising assessing the tax at a time after the taxable activity has take place.
20 . The method of claim 1 further comprising assessing the tax when the player controlling the character attempts to exit the game.