No, you don't have to report Fortnite V-Bucks on your taxes
The taxman cometh for your virtual money. But that doesn't include your V-Bucks.
Your stack of V-Bucks are safe, at least from the IRS.
Fortnite makes much of its money from a virtual currency, V-Bucks, which are used to purchase cosmetics such as skins, emotes and pickaxes in the billion-dollar battle royale game. All that virtual money floating around must have caught the attention of the Internal Revenue Service.
Language on the IRS website listed Fortnite V-Bucks as an example of virtual currency that needed to be reported on tax forms, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday. However, that language has now been removed, and the IRS says it was a mistake.
"The IRS recognizes that the language on our page potentially caused concern for some taxpayers" the agency said in a statement Friday. "We have changed the language in order to lessen any confusion. Transacting in virtual currencies as part of a game that do not leave the game environment (virtual currencies that are not convertible) would not require a taxpayer to indicate this on their tax return."
Virtual currency, according to the IRS, is "digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value." This includes cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. While V-Bucks can be purchased and exchanged for items within Fortnite, they can't be turned into actual money.
"V-Bucks cannot be digitally traded between users, nor can they be exchanged into, US dollars, Euros, and other real or virtual currencies," Fortnite developer Epic Games said in an emailed statement Friday.
