게임아이템의 거래가 부가가치세법상 과세거래에 해당되는지 여부 ―서울행정법원 2009. 8. 28. 선고 2009구합4418 판결 평석―

Present value added tax (VAT) makes game items as an object of taxation but the present VAT regulation makes the custom market as the source of taxation and this makes it hard to define game items as goods or services. To classify the vague nature of this problem this study defines characteristics of game items to materialize it into whether or not it is goods or services. First, if game items are saved into concrete materialized products such as CD or DVD should be classified as a good(Type I). Second, if the digital product does not go through a concrete materialized product (Type I) and can be used by logging into the internet server should be more specified into two parts. First if the digital product can be downloaded one time and can be used without re-accessing the server and the only difference between this type of digital product and the Type I digital product is the usage of CD or DVD can be thought as a good(Type Ⅱ). Next if the user has to re-access the server to use the digital product after downloading it can be said as a service because the user has to continue to use that downloading service to use the digital product(Type Ⅲ). Third, when the digital product and the right of usage can be bought from a game company and can give out the usage privilege of the product to other users should be thought as transfer of rights and this type of digital product can be thought as a good(Type Ⅳ). In short if the digital item to have a characteristic of a good it has to be downloaded on to the user’s computer or if not downloaded and can be reused it means the ownership is going to the user and has a characteristic of a good. When the digital item has to be re-accessed from the game company’s server and has to be logged in to use the owner ship of the game item is still to the game company and can be classified as a service.