You're Not Suggesting That We Tax... Thingy?

The IRS may soon be coming to Second Life. For real:

Taxpayer advocate Nina Olson listed the usual perennial suspects — telling the IRS it should simplify the tax code and improve its working with taxpayers experiencing financial difficulties, among many other things.

But she also told the agency that it should “proactively address emerging issues such as those arising from virtual worlds.” Her report said that about $1 billion in real dollars changed hands in computer-based environments during 2005. Additionally, more than 16 million people are said to have active subscriptions in these worlds, “many of which have their own virtual economies and currencies.”

It was just a matter of time, really.