The Death Toll of IMVU Resellers

Why did imvu decide to offer cash payments to content creators and cut credit resellers out of the loop?

This is old news by now, and the dust has settled for the most part, but it still garners a closer look at WHY imvu went the route of axing credit resellers.

As predicted in 2009, it's here. The US IRS wants a piece of the pie.

http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/taxes-coming-to-virtual-worlds

The shit has hit the fan and in 2014 the IRS has given it's stamp of un-approval regarding transactions involving actual dollars in the virtual world.

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Tax-Consequences-of-Virtual-World-Transactions

I'm not a tax attorney, and don't quote me, but this was mined off the IRS pages:

• Wages paid to employees using virtual currency are taxable to the employee, must be reported by an employer on a Form W-2, and are subject to federal income tax withholding and payroll taxes. 
• Payments using virtual currency made to independent contractors and other service providers are taxable and self-employment tax rules generally apply. Normally, payers must issue Form 1099. 
• The character of gain or loss from the sale or exchange of virtual currency depends on whether the virtual currency is a capital asset in the hands of the taxpayer. 
• A payment made using virtual currency is subject to information reporting to the same extent as any other payment made in property.

And exactly how do content creators get paid in imvu? The following screen captures show you the web pages. Visit imvu.com for the official tutorial showing how to sign up for cash payments. These screen captures here show after you've already been verified for payments

Above, log in to the site, from "Community" click "Creator Program".

Click on "Learn More" as above.

You are able to choose your payment distribution levels. All credits, all cash or any variation in 10% increments.

The Payment information section, as indicated, tells you what you have available and what is pending or on hold for two weeks.

The above form is what you would fill in to request a cash payout. Payouts usually take about 3 business days providing there are no mistakes on the form.

This is an example of pended cash amounts.

  This is an example of pended cash amounts. Reports are available to download to your computer.