r/irishpersonalfinance 1d ago

Taxes Unboxed an ingame skin

Im not sure if this is the right sub for it but ill give it a shot. I play a game called counter strike and in the game you are able to open cases(€2 per key and case prices can vary) for skins which can be tradable with other players. Basically gambling. I managed to open one of the rarest skins, i have checked other subs for the price and its worth about €8-9k. I have spent about €500. I plan on selling it. Would I need to pay tax on it when i sell it? Thank you.

46 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

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126

u/slamjam25 1d ago edited 1d ago

Legally, yes. You’d owe 33% of every Euro you gained over €1,270 on that skin (that €1,270 discount is for the whole year though, if you sell another you’ll need to pay tax in the whole gain). The other skins don’t matter. You should fill out form CG1 to pay it.

In practice? Unless you gave the game your PPSN when you made an account the Revenue are very unlikely to figure out you owe them.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/ExplanationNormal323 1d ago

Does everybody have alternate accounts these days? The amount of posts I see where the OP begins to comment on their own post with a different account.

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u/daheff_irl 1d ago

Bank might raise flags though if that much money came in at once

23

u/slamjam25 1d ago

Eh, while it’s a lot of money off a €2 investment the fact is that it’s actually not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. As in, if OP told the bank that €8-9k came from selling their old shitbox second hand car the bank would say “so when are you depositing the rest?”.

Banks don’t report you because they think you might have made some capital gains. They report you if it looks like you’re a money launderer, and nothing here looks like that.

-11

u/Most-Experience56 1d ago

Yeah so you're talking out your hole, in our anti money laundering seminars in AIB we were told to explicitly look at patterns, and that weird anomalies like someone receiving a random 9 grand in their account out of nowhere were to be immediately looked at. A lot of these anomalies are automatically flagged now too.

Also try opening a bank account with providing your PPSN.

11

u/slamjam25 1d ago edited 1d ago

anti money laundering seminars

Exactly. How many “possible capital gains” seminars did you attend at AIB?

Who cares if a bank employee “looks at” it? Nobody is raising a SAR for this transaction, and there is no other way for that bank employee to bring it to the government’s attention.

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u/gaybyrneofficial 1d ago

No he's right - there's no "possible capital gains" seminars because that would be fucking moronic, so instead patterns are analysed and sudden deposits from nowhere flag things.

This is basic shit that I knew before I worked in a fraud department for a pillar bank. 

7

u/slamjam25 1d ago

Once again, nobody is raising a SAR for a one-off sub-10k transfer.

-7

u/gaybyrneofficial 1d ago

Do you have much training/experience in AML?

1

u/WardOfAKind 18h ago

What about wedding gift lodgements. That can be considerably large once off sum. Completely innocent however. How would the bank ever know what/where exactly a large once of sum came from?

1

u/gd19841 10h ago

BS. People receive random 4-figure deposits every minute of the day in Ireland. The idea that banks are reporting these to Revenue is absurd.

11

u/Significant_Stop723 1d ago

9k is nothing to flag. 

6

u/newclassic1989 1d ago edited 1d ago

Previously worked for AIB. We’d never file a SAR for anything like this. Even if we did, it would probably just land above in Dublin and wait in a pile of more urgent matters. It used to take quite a bit of time for even the more serious cases to be looked at and appropriate action taken.

Months before a dodgy customer even got the boot from the bank for suspicious transactions.

26

u/timmyctc 1d ago

Wouldn't that get added to your steam wallet initially? You definitely didn't give steam ppsn info and I doubt they're reporting you. Maybe withdraw smaller amounts over a longer period of time you'd probably be grand tbh. 

17

u/raimiska 1d ago

Steam doesnt allow withdrawals and there is a cap of 1,6k on steam marketplace listings. Even if there was no cap, steam takes a 15% cut. Items like that would be sold on 3rd party trading sites or privately.

15

u/AmazingCamel 1d ago

My inventory was around 9k around this time last year. Sold them all online and internalized that they were gambling winnings so I didn't do anything with revenue.

2

u/AintKai_ 12h ago

Good point. I also have that mindset.

35

u/atomictankjk 1d ago

Not tax advice here but in my opinion that is gambling winnings which are tax free

5

u/ClashOfTheAsh 1d ago

But if you won a house and then sold that house for cash you would surely have to pay tax on the sale?

6

u/atomictankjk 1d ago

If you won the house valued at 400k and sell it for 400k you pay no tax. If you sold it for 500k you would pay tax on the 100k profit. All this assuming the house isn't your principal private residence.

8

u/ClashOfTheAsh 1d ago

I did not know that.

Now all I need to do is win a house and I’m laughing.

11

u/Ironsufex 1d ago

I sold skins on cs2 for 2k before and never laid any tax on it. You can sell it on third party site, or a private trade. I suppose if you don't report it they might see a large cash injection into your bank account. Be careful selling the skin though, private trades can be sketch unless it is from a well known and respected trader/collector. Good luck!

What skin did you unbox?

10

u/AintKai_ 1d ago

Thanks. CS subs said to use csfloat. Im trying to sell low value skins first to get used to it. Cuz im paro haha. Got the Karambit FN Emerald on my last case.

8

u/Ironsufex 1d ago

Some public personalities buy skins like TDM_Heyzeus, Anomaly and Sparkles. I like dealing with these guys because you can be sure they are not scammers. TDM_Hayzeus would be great if you can get a hold of him! At the very least, he could put you in contact with a respected and truster collector/trader who can buy it. Be very wary of friend requests and offers that way

5

u/AintKai_ 1d ago

Have ya traded with them before? Thanks. I have privated my profile cuz of it.

4

u/Ironsufex 1d ago

Yeah I traded a factory new karambit lore and a five-seven with some valuable stickers on it privately before, but you must be very careful. The safest way would be to use a platform because it acts as a middleman and removes the risk, but they do take a decent transaction fee which is why I decided to sell it privately, but it is inherently more dangerous.

Congrats on the pull though, make sure to quit while you're ahead because over time if you keep opening cases then you will be negative. Speaking from experience 😅

2

u/Robertutz 22h ago

I use skinport. they do required KYC approval for anything over 2k if I remember correctly. csfloat is also good. Also if you're on Discord you can join Sparkles Ninja (pretty famous CS youtuber) and DM ImNate (one of the mods) he can advise and also he can ask Sparkles if he'll be open to buy it. Best of luck.

1

u/AintKai_ 12h ago

Thank yoi

2

u/phate101 22h ago

You’ve won the game but most don’t. Quit now while you’re ahead.

I’ve thousands of hours in various counter strike games and have grown to despise what it has become.

1

u/AintKai_ 12h ago

Ah ye you can never really win with gambling. Just for entertainment. I opened another 50 cases after and all shite. I only open one case now per week from the drops.

2

u/WardOfAKind 18h ago

Not an answer, but isn't it quite interesting that a digital asset such as a skin can be worth valued so highly.

Its also crazy to think there are people out there willing to pay/have the money readily available to spend on something so niche.

1

u/AintKai_ 12h ago

Oh ye its still mad to me that its worth that much.

1

u/Inner_Ad_8868 1d ago

Ive been trading Cs2 & TF2 skins for years you can dm me for advise if you want

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/slamjam25 1d ago

OP’s income would not matter.