Because the number of Play Boosters in a box has been reduced to 30, some players expressed concern about the tax burden of the Aetherdrift Arena Direct event coming up this weekend. For 2024 events WotC sent out tax information valuing the prize of each Arena Direct event at a flat $250, regardless of which set or type of booster was won in the event. As a reminder, this matches the cash value equivalent mentioned in the terms and conditions for these events that WotC promises to pay in the event they do not have enough product to ship out to winners.
Although there were no Collector Booster boxes awarded as prizes in 2024, there was a Modern Horizons 3 Arena Direct.
When I asked if there were going to be any changes to how taxes on the Arena Direct prizes will be assessed given the reduction of packs per box, David Finseth (Senior Product Manager on Arena) let me know that the plan going forward will be to use MSRP instead of the flat $250 used in 2024. He also let me know that they are working on an announcement to update players on both the change and the taxes in general, as he’s been getting a lot of feedback about it and wants to make things simpler for players. While there is not currently an estimate on when this article is coming, be on the lookout for it at Daily MTG, as it will certainly contain more detailed information than I am currently providing here.
WotC does not list an MSRP for Play Booster or Collector Booster boxes, but the MSRP per pack for Aetherdrift is $5.49. $5.49 * 60 (two boxes of 30 packs each) = $329.40. I wanted to clarify this with David and he assured me this was “loosely correct”. If you play in the Arena Direct event this weekend, it should be reasonable to expect the tax assessment to be somewhere around the $329 mark per win.
How much this will affect you at the end of the year is outside the scope of this article. If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding this information, you should consult your local laws and likely a tax professional.
