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The lot of the RPGamer has been too insulated from the real world for far too long! Benjamin Franklin said that the two certainties of life are death and taxes, yet RPG's commonly have but one of them! Time to end this distressing lack of government involvement in an appropriate fashion.
How to implement taxation in an RPG... oh, the myriad possibilities to explore! Firstly comes the income tax in all its grandeur. So much monetary accrual as a result of monster slaying occurs in RPGs, yet not a bit of it shows up on tax forms! The tax collectors are coming to grab their percentage of the player's winnings from battle, and the only option aside from paying what is owed would be to go to prison for tax fraud!
Then the sales tax must be examined. Certainly store owners already seem to inflate their prices - but the price the player sees in the window is NOT the final price once a sales tax comes into play. The government needs its cut to pay off lobbyists and only the black market avoids the omnipresent oversight!
Duties and customs are a part of government fund collection as well, and cannot be ignored! Passing into another country happens quite frequently in RPGs yet nary a customs officer is to be found... no longer! And the player must pay attention to the forbidden importation lists or else find his/her offending items confiscated!
Then the tariff, ever a favorite of the protectionist lobbies, must be implemented. Naturally the best materials are not made at home anymore - but to keep the superior foreign goods from forcing domestic manufacturers into bankruptcy tariffs inflate their prices!
Beware the property tax! Unless the hero(ine) wants to give up his/her home to lenders' court the taxes must be paid! Along with the taxes on the airship, which of course include remaining licensed to pilot such an unusual vehicle!
And of course whenever someone important dies and passes something important on, inheritance taxes shall be paid! The government monitors death, and it knows when money from the dead is owed to it!
Got a job in-game that generates some form of income? Don't look to see the paycheck equal the gross income thanks to payroll taxes! The retired citizenry must be supported through these tax dollars, along with subsidizing government support of the downtrodden who have seen their lives turned topsy-turvy by whatever nasty force is trying to conquer/destroy the world.
So many other kinds of taxes remain for the in-game governments to institute. After all, why should virtual governments be less demanding than real ones?
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