IRS Rules Electric Sheep's Second Life Greeters as Part-Time Employees
When The Electric Sheep Company launched its major CSI event in Second Life last year (and continued it through to this year), one of the nods towards bringing new users in easily to the virtual world was a posse of staffed greeter avatars. Although it seemed like they might be considered contractors, the IRS has now ruled that they're part-time employees. ""The greeters whom ESC employed in Second Life have indeed been ruled as part-time employees by the IRS, so we will take appropriate steps," ESC VP of Operations and Strategy Giff Constable told The Second Life Herald.
"I actually think that this is an interesting precedent - that part-time workers in a virtual world, and using their own equipment, schedule, and judgment to perform tasks, have been ruled as employees," explained Constable.
It certainly is an interesting precedent. With the U.S. Congress looking at virtual worlds from multiple angles and a report still in the works from the Joint Economic Committee on virtual worlds and taxes, an official rule from the IRS could start to see some larger effects.
It's worth noting that it doesn't seem like this ruling wasn't over the virtual/real nature of the job, but over the contractor/employee discussion. Even so, Sweden has already declared in-world transactions taxable, and it looks like the U.S. is starting to view virtual world jobs as just a little more real as well.
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