SL and the IRS

I am sitting here at my RL job on my scheduled goof off time and I got to thinking about a few things. A few US dwellers in SL boast about making SL their full-time jobs and I wondered how do they report this RL.

By law, any income above $7,000 per year (I think) has to be reported to the IRS and taxes paid on it. Considering I always itemize my taxes and ALWAYS get a refund for my deductions, I can't say that I have studied this part of the spectrum. How does the SL income play into RL income if the linden is not an official currency?

Ok, granted you convert to USD but is that still considered income? It could probably be considered as a gift, which should be reported as income just like eBay but I don't think there has been any solidified information from the IRS relating to metaverses as of yet.

This was just a thought that I figured I would put on pixels but I will update this as I study the tax code a little more relating to non-taxed income and 1099 statuses...