Axie Infinity Reminds Users to Abide by Country's Laws
After reports popped up that the Department of Finance, as well as its sub-agency the Bureau of Internal Revenue, was reminding users about tax returns of income from play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, the game developers released a bulletin for its community members.
“Sky Mavis encourages Axie community members to abide by the laws of their home countries,” said the Vietnam-based developer.
It added: “We’re proud that Axie’s global playerbase can buy and sell to anyone, anywhere and earn an income through this blossoming digital economy.”
Sky Mavis went on to say that it considers the play-to-earn model an “important shift in the nature of work.”
“[W]e look forward to working with physical nations (governments) on a path forward that encourages innovation and empowers gamers,” it said.
More than half of Axie Infinity’s global userbase is made up of Filipinos, writes Leah Callon-Butler, the Coindesk journalist who was the first to break news of the game’s popularity in the country earlier this year. The NFT game, which dispenses in-game currency called Small Love Potions that can be used to breed tradeable digital Axies or exchanged for cryptocurrency in an open marketplace, has proved a boon to many Filipinos during the tough economic straits of the COVID-19 crisis.
But as representatives of both the DOF and the BIR have told the media over the past week, income generated from Axie Infinity must be declared as part of your income tax.
This story originally appeared on Spin.ph. Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.
