Valve Will Let Governments Tax Virtual Trading on Steam
Valve is said to be preparing to introduce an option that will allow local tax authorities to charge a fee on Steam item transactions.
Valve may introduce local taxation for item transactions on Steam. As Pavel Djundik, creator of SteamDB, said, the platform would charge a fee for trading virtual equipment, imposed by local regulatory authorities.
Djundik claims that for now, this is to be implemented only in selected states of the USA, and the fee would likely be charged per transaction, not based on the value of the item (i.e. how much the buyer paid). Nonetheless, this would open the door to taxing transactions in every other country.
The issue of trading digital items has long been controversial. The market centered around such "riches" is an important part of the ecosystem of Counter-Strike or Team Fortress 2, and there are also extreme cases that sometimes border on speculative plays or other suspicious activity.
That is why for years there have been discussions about the regulation of this market (and loot boxes), which is currently a grey zone. So far, this has not translated into specific actions, but the fact that Valve is introducing the described feature may indicate that the idyll of virtual asset traders may come to an end (or be seriously hindered).