Taxation issues in the digital economy: The case of the game economy

With the emergence of new digital services and technologies, there has been an increase in the number of goods and services offered in digital media. Indeed, this has led many businesses and individual users to increase their revenue through these platforms. However, the increase in revenues in this area did not result in any increase in the tax revenues of the countries. The fact that businesses operating in the digital economy continue their activities without the need for a physical asset creates problems in terms of taxation transactions. As a matter of fact, tax administrations have difficulties in taxing the revenues earned by businesses operating in this field. The proliferation of the digital economy has caused individuals to spend more time and money on digital platforms. As a matter of fact, the virtual game economy, which has reached billion dollars, has become a big industry. However, taxing the incomes obtained by individuals in virtual games means to face many problems. One of these problems is the lack of virtual property rights of individuals in the game and the inability to determine the economic activities of individuals. There is a consensus on the issue of taxation of economic activities in the game world assuming that the property rights are recognized, theoretically taxation procedures should be carried out in this field. In addition, there are many countries targeting taxation transactions in the game world, especially the USA. In this study, the taxation problems of the digital economy and the taxation problems of the virtual game economy that arise with the digital economy are discussed. Subsequently, the tax dimenson of the digital and virtual game economy was discussed.