The Metaverse Is Already Taxing People?
The folk over at Meta wasted no time in coming up with a Metaverse tax.
This article is more than 2 years old
Virtual buying and selling have been a principal component of the 2020s. With cryptocurrency and NFTs rising in popularity throughout the pandemic, many industries are trying to cash in on the metaverse craze. But with its meteoric ascension comes a monetary caveat. A metaverse tax might apply to the virtual exchange of goods for one inventive application.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is attempting to incorporate virtual sales into its latest app. Initiating a new virtual market application called Horizon Worlds, Meta takes all the physical parts of physical transactions and imports them into an immaterial landscape. As a head and floating torso, you’ll be able to move through the universe and make actual transactions through the application. Though this sounds easy and profitable, there will be a metaverse tax the app imposes on transactions.
With Horizon Worlds, creators can design virtual items like handbags, jewelry, and clothing to trade online. But, the company behind the app will be taking 25% per transaction as part of the metaverse tax. Those being taxed initially won’t just be any random player. The Meta team will handpick the initial users of Horizon Worlds as part of their trial run. It’ll feel like an almost honor to give over a quarter of your earnings to these social network innovators.
After the trial run is over, Meta will be expanding this platform to any user wishing to be a part of a virtual landscape. This will include all sellers who’ve been yearning to receive money from their intangible goods. The company even described that the app could help people “earn a living” through virtual exchange. It’s unclear if the metaverse tax will remain after the trial run, but odds are the Meta team will have some form of taxation on the transactions.
What has been released about Meta’s revolutionary new application is that it’ll only be available for the United States and Canadian citizens ages 18 and up. Payments within the Horizon Worlds app will be processed through the Meta App Store. For the foreseeable future, goods exchanged throughout the virtual world will remain permanently in the app. Any good created or exchanged cannot be transferred to another account, game, or metaverse. Vivek Sharma, VP for Meta’s Horizon Worlds, did note that the future may bring some changes where goods could be eventually transferred to different applications. But for now, the Horizon Worlds goods remaining permanently in the app, as well as the metaverse tax, will be left unphased.
Another question users have for the executives at Meta is the reluctance to include advertisements for individual sellers within Horizon Worlds. As of now, there’s no implemented way for users to have their goods advertised, meaning they potentially could receive no sales for their creations. Though Meta has acknowledged these concerns with the metaverse tax, the trial run, and the limited advertising, the company stated they wouldn’t address worries until later.
The virtual world is an intriguing, elusive place that many industries are trying to capitalize on. With Horizon Worlds, the former Facebook company will be attracting users while continuously extracting their profits through the metaverse tax.
