Bartering
Feb 28th, 2011 | By Esther | Category: Misc | Print This Article
Bartering is a cash-free method of commerce that has existed since before history and is still in use across the country and around the world. Simply put, it is the exchange of your excess goods and/or services for the goods and/or services of others that you are lacking. This is usually a binding agreement between two parties, but can exist between as many parties as are in agreement with the terms set up for your bartering community.
Bartering Examples
I have a long-term bartering agreement with a friend from my church family. Betty and her family raise chickens, rabbits and cows. They usually have an abundance of eggs and milk. They also have more manure in their pasture than their garden can use. I have a garden in which I grow much more produce than my rabbits and I can eat and more than my pantry will hold for the season. So I exchange my abundance of corn, broccoli, squash, etc. for a gallon of milk and 1-2 dozen eggs weekly, along with all the manure I can use.
This year Betty and I have added another dimension to our bartering agreement; we are educating each other, too. Betty is trying to improve her gardening skills and I need help in building a web presence for my home-based business. We are currently meeting one morning a month to teach each other the lessons we are in need of and, later this spring, it will be increased to a full day each month.
My mother and a friend of hers also have a bartering agreement. My mom belongs to a member’s only warehouse store and can purchase many bulk items cheaper than you can get them, even if you buy them from a discount chain such as Wal-Mart. Devon works cleaning my mom’s house and, in exchange, mom buys food for Devon’s animals at the warehouse for the lower price. Both are getting exactly what they need and are happy with their arrangement.
I also know of woman who sits with an older lady to keep her company when her family is working or running errands. In return she is allowed to use the family’s Internet service for several hours to pay her for her services.
Again there is a young family that provides butchering services for others who are in need of some small animals killed and cleaned for the table, but are not skilled in this area. In return they keep a portion of the meat or the hides in exchange for the butchering.
Getting Started
My church family is small and we just talk to each other during our fellowship dinners each week to make our bartering arrangements. You will have to set you your bartering exchange differently. Look for others in your community who are interested in a system of bartering.
There are as many ways to set up your bartering system as there are members in those communities; I will mention a couple here.
- One way is to put up a bulletin board [or “Barter Board”] in your church or community center. Divide the board in half with a string and a couple of tacks. On one side interested persons can place their notices showing what goods and/or services they are in need of with their contact info on it. On the other side interested persons can place notices showing what goods and/or services they have to offer with their contact info [3x5 cards work well for this]. Interested parties can browse the board for what they require and contact anyone who may have what they are in need of.
- Another way to get connected is to begin a “forum” or “group” online where interested persons can post their info electronically and other members of that group or forum can peruse the list at their leisure and make contact within that e-community too. Setting up a group is relatively easy through such sites as Yahoo.
In Closing
As you can see, bartering can be done in any way that all parties feel is equitable. Even if it wouldn’t be an equal value with dollars, it is still a blessing to each party as they are getting what they need and supplying others with something that would be excess and may go to waste. Bartering can be both fun and profitable.
Begin bartering today and enjoy a cashless, free enterprise system with the added benefit of making new friends, or becoming closer friends with some you already know.
Happy Bartering!
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Being a small business owner and doing my own taxes (both sales tax and federal income tax), you need to know that our wonderful tax codes discourage bartering. In fact, they have a place on my state sales tax forms for the amount of bartering I have done and it’s worth. Of course, that shouldn’t discourage you from doing so. I would just be careful about posting any information on paper or on line about your bartering (name, phone number, address, etc) if you’re not claiming the actual worth of your income barter on your tax forms. Big Brother’s eyes are everywhere and wanting every penny they can get from you.
In Reply to:
On… J.C. Hobbs says: February 28, 2011 at 3:10 pm
With regard to this part… I find it interesting and disturbing that more amd more people just enter whatever piece of information on any tax form the IRS demands, for whatever reason, without questioning the LEGAILTY, LAWFULLNESS or CONSTITUTIONALITY of their demand for anything on their forms!
I just did a complete and thorough search of Title 26 of the U.S. Codes, the FEDERAL Tax Authority… and this is what I found…
The ‘WORD’ or ‘TERM’ – ‘Barter’ – appears in Title 26 a WHOPPING 3, that’s THREE times!
See…
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/index.html
from Cornell U. the Generally Accepted Authority on the Title…
and these lead me to…
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/display.html?terms=barter&url=/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00006045—-000-.html
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/display.html?terms=barter&url=/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00007609—-000-notes.html
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/display.html?terms=barter&url=/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00007603—-000-.html
wherein I find…
UNITED STATES CODE: TITLE 26, 6045. RETURNS OF BROKERS
TITLE 26 – INTERNAL REVENUE CODE/Subtitle F – Procedure and Administration
CHAPTER 61 – INFORMATION AND RETURNS
Subchapter A – Returns and Records
PART III – INFORMATION RETURNS
Subpart B – Information Concerning Transactions With Other Persons
UNITED STATES CODE: TITLE 26, 7609. SPECIAL PROCEDURES FOR THIRD-PARTY SUMMONSES
TITLE 26 – INTERNAL REVENUE CODE
Subtitle F – Procedure and Administration
CHAPTER 78 – DISCOVERY OF LIABILITY AND ENFORCEMENT OF TITLE
Subchapter A – Examination and Inspection
UNITED STATES CODE: TITLE 26, 7603. SERVICE OF SUMMONS
TITLE 26 – INTERNAL REVENUE CODE
Subtitle F – Procedure and Administration
CHAPTER 78 – DISCOVERY OF LIABILITY AND ENFORCEMENT OF TITLE
Subchapter A – Examination and Inspection
——————————————————–
which in NO WAY apply to PRIVATE BARTER AGREEMENTS, regardless of any verbal or written contract or agreement!
If, as you say…
‘Being a small business owner and doing my own taxes (both sales tax and federal income tax), you need to know that our wonderful tax codes discourage bartering. In fact, they have a place on my state sales tax forms for the amount of bartering I have done and it’s worth.’…
… Then you might want to take a second look at your TAX FORMS and the LEGAL, LAWFULL and CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT, of the government’s, (read ‘the I.R.S.’s') to demand the information on any tax form!?!?
And I also agree as you say that…
…’Of course, that shouldn’t discourage you from doing so. I would just be careful about posting any information on paper or on line about your bartering (name, phone number, address, etc) if you’re not claiming the actual worth of your income barter on your tax forms. Big Brother’s eyes are everywhere and wanting every penny they can get from you.’…
——————————————————————————–
With Regards to this.. I do agree fully, everyone should know that everything they type into their keyboard and send anywhere can be culled from the archives and backup of every server on the net, worldwide, with a simple software application or a few commands from the Dos Prompt… if you know what you’re doing!
But I also have to say that your lack of quoting the source of the information you present is lacking, your point is worth considering. I have provided 3 examples, and the SOURCE of those examples, as an example of how I provide irrefutable evidence of my claim that these three sections of CODE ‘in NO WAY apply to PRIVATE BARTER AGREEMENTS, regardless of any verbal or written contract or agreement!’!
I have been studying Title 26 in depth for 30 years and I can state the folowing as fact!
The three sections wherein the Word or Term ‘Barter’ appear are as follows…
Sections 6045, 7603 and 7609.
The First…
Sec. 6045. Returns of brokers… ONLY APPLIES TO BROKERS during the normal course of their trade or business!
The Second…
Sec. 7603. deals with the service of summons to third party recordkeepers under sections following…
Sec. 6420. Gasoline used on farms
Sec. 6421. Gasoline used for certain nonhighway purposes, used by local transit systems, or sold for certain exempt purposes
and…
Sec. 6427. Fuels not used for taxable purposes…
and the third section…
Sec. 7609 only refers to Section 6045 in the miscellaneous provisions and ammendments section and does NOT appear in the actual section! Section 7609 deals only with …
Sec. 7609. Special procedures for third-party summonses…!
I discovered all of this with very little effort…
My Point is simply this… just because someone asks you for information, doesn’t mean that they are LEGAL, LAWFULL and CONSTITUTIONAL “ENTITLED” to ask for it… even on a Federal Tax Form!
Just because they ask YOU for some piece of information on a form that is used by MILLIONS of tax filers, doesn’t mean that all of the ‘BOXES’ apply to YOU!
Know Your Rights! Read the Law!
Readers’ Beware!
The IRS code prohibits any bartering arrangement that is not reported to them for tax purposes. BE VERY CAREFUL about letting others know what you are doing. Remember, the IRS is the arm of government that assumes you are guilty until you proove yourself innocent.
While this is true, the argument is easily made–and has been successfully adjudicated–that bartering is and even exchange of goods purchased with money that has already been taxed and that it does nothing to ‘further enrich’ either participant. For evidence of bartering to be of any legal use to the government, it has to prove that someone made a profit.
I was considering offering services and instead of accepting payment have the other person pay my tithe at church. Is that also a no no with the IRS?
Look at it this way….someone else pays your tithes, but you can deduct your charitable giving (tithe included) from your income taxes, unless you use the short form in your return. Ouch, they get you one way or another.
It might be an OK arrangement with bartering to have someone else opay your tithes but you miss out on the blessing of tithing out of your abundance, and tithing in faith and confidence that you are rich already in Jesus Christ
I agree.
If the IRS would just fine those employers who pay illegal workers in cash and the illegals that don’t pay income tax ,we would not have to worry about the IRS wanting to collect from Bartering because they would stay too busy fining hundreds of thousands of employers.Here in my small east Texas town illegals have taken several jobs our local> LEGAL CITIZENS SHOULD HAVE.Our so called”Federal government ”does nothing to protect LEGAL USA citizens from employers that hire illegals.Nothing is done about the Billions of tax free money illegals send over our borders.So why should worry about the IRS wanting me to pay taxes on bartering?I don’t and I won’t until they enforce the laws on the books now to stop the unfair illegal hiring of illegals in this Nation that take our jobs,use our schools services and food welfare services while not paying their fair share of taxes themselves..If the federal government doesn’t enforce the laws we hire them to enforce then eventually we will have anarchy in the streets of this nation because the American tax paying citizen is getting FED UP with Washington’s uncontrolled spending!..Join me at Austin’s state Capitol on March the 5th on the South lawn at 1pm to support the move for Texas to secede from the Union and return to the Republic we have in our Texas constitution…>Texas Nationalist.com<Born free Die free !
If you have not done so, read the Fair Tax book and check it out. That is what we need for taxes. It is a consumption tax on everything we buy. There would be no taxes taken out of pay checks and a prebate for people who are low income. This way everyone who uses anything will have to pay taxes. Even illegals and visitors from overseas. Everyone. Rich and poor, This book is by Neal Boortz and congressman John Linder. Of course the government will never accept it. It’s to simple.
This is easy folks, 16th Amendment to the Constitution, Income from any and all sources is taxable. Bartering would be a form of income; therefore, reportable and taxable. When the Colonies won their independence from Great Britain, a barter economy was all we had. Bartering has a long standing tradition in this country. Regardless of the tax ramifications, I would encourage the use of bartering.
You are correct Marc. So many people are worried about the IRS till it is ridiculous. If you keep proper records and proper business then this would not be an issue. It is the way business is done keeping proper documents. The government will always try to tax the people on everything that is how they operate by GREED. It is not run like a true government the way that God intended. I would very much encourage bartering as an alternative to swapping the paper that we call money that is even more useless than the government is.
At this stage of the republic there are so many laws and regulations with punitative powers, almost everyone is in violation of something every day. Take the little cork screw light bulbs. Very few localities have a means of disposing of burned out bulbs and so the go in the dump. BIG No No. That puts mercury into the ground water. Break one in your home, to comply with enviornmental regs you almost need a haz-mat team. Most small towns and counties don’t even have a proper way to dispose of burned out flashlight and hearing aid batteries. Had this discussion last Saturday with the recycling team. Result: In a couple of years our county will have to close its land fill and the state will take over. Then some of these things will have to be addressed by the state. Comforting isn’t it.
I could only hope that by the time we are all reduced to bartering, that the IRS is shuttered…
Amen!
It is amazing to me that what we barter is required to be taxed. I could understand if we bartered 5 quarts of chicken soup and we were then taxed 1 quart of chicken soup – but to be taxed $$$$$ when none was involved and may not be available makes no sense.
I got 18 dozon eggs in exchange for 3 wheel barrels of cow manure. I’m taxed at 25%, what does that come to in cow manure….
That one way to pay your taxes, send in 25% of the cow manure, its worth more than the FRN’s!
that’s funny!
sorry I meant 18 eggs…
You know what would be funny, if the IRS insists on taxing a barter system, that they recieve a portion of the goods bartered. Barter 2 dozen eggs for a wheel-barrow full of manure, send a couple eggs and a pound of manure to the IRS April 15! LOL!
Oh, no….. be carwful about this option…they can get you for terrorism…i.e., sending lethal chemicals to a government agency
Bartering is a great way to exchange goods and services; something that my family has done for many years. We have bartered for cars, vacations, baby sitting and innumerable things when “cash” just wasn’t available. It never occurred to us that the IRS would attempt to get their share, but it IS unlawful to evade taxation by bartering and that is why we must completely do away with the IRS.
Unfortunately, the proposed “Fair Tax” is not the solution. Most of the schemes at revamping the Tax Code by their own declaration are “Revenue Neutral”, which means that only the MEANS of extraction will change, not the amount. For a good review of the “Fair Tax” as well as a review of Boortz and Linder’s books on the “fair Tax”, read the article in The New American Magazine titled: Is Making Taxes “Fair” the Answer? By Lawrence Vance.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/economics-mainmenu-44/289-is-making-taxes-fair-the-answer
I’m not particularly concerned with whether the Government steals my money from my right pocket or my left pocket, but that money which we earn is taken from us and redistributed to others; even for purposes that I find immoral. The increase each year in Federal spending by both Democratic and Republican Congresses is astounding. If we just returned to the bloated spending amount for the budget of FY 2000, we could eliminate the Federal Income Tax altogether. Help repeal the Income Tax and replace it with NOTHING! Are you listening Boortz, Linder, Huckabee, etal?
I saw a T Shirt down at the beach that said,
“US Government: Take your hand out of my pocket…I can stimulate myself.”
that’s really funn!
Here is what I am looking for in a supplier of prep items such as food, supplies etc, is a vendor either online or local that will trade goods, i.e. Freeze Dried meals, etc for silver bullion. Since I have removed my self completely from the banking system for the most part, I have to convert silver to FRNs then convert that to a money order, etc. Anyone have a source for vendors in our community of prep sites that do this? Seems like a prefect match to me.
Much has been made here about the IRS going after those who barter. Perhaps we should take a realistic look at what it takes to make a case that someone ‘bartered’ and ‘how much the transaction(s) is worth’ and whether it is worth it for the government to throw good money after ‘questionable worth.’ Even if it wanted to make an example of someone it would need a credible witness and/or a ‘substantial means to prosecute.’
Since the IRS has its hands full going after those who obviously evade taxes concerning ‘real money,’ one would think that before the government would bother making the example it would have to have sustantial proof that bartering was depriving the government of billions of dollars. Of course, any government that possesses a growing concern about what we eat and the seeds we plant could take a genuine interest at any moment in the insignificant consequences (to it) of bartering. As it stands now, doesn’t seem like that much of a gamble. I’m for it and calling it nobody’s business.
Every one should look up the definition of income. Wages are not income.
hmmmm
yes, wages are income, because when you earn wages, you are working (providing a service) in exchange for monetary goods. it’s the same thing. according to my 2002 New International webster’s pocket dictionary, Income is a noun,” something of value received in exchange, such as for goods or labor; earnings.”
I like the Bart Simpson theory on this I didn’t do anything, No body saw me do it