The IRS adheres to materiality/scope when performing their audits - if it will cost them more to pursue the money than they will collect if they're right, they'll generally not do so. Additionally, tax years older than three years are closed to audit unless the IRS believes there to be fraud. Lastly, you could probably argue that, in a food swap exchange, that the cost of the foods you trade in close enough to the foods received to result in no net income from the transaction. Unless you're trading $600+ dollars in bartered goods per year (transactions over $600 may require a 1099 to be file), the IRS is likely to simply purse bigger fish.

On topic: I love food and if I had neighbors that cooked I'd potentially be interested in this type of thing.

Krieghund: meat0918: Remember people.

The IRS still wants their pound of flesh, even if you barter something.

I knew you had to declare barter income, but I assumed you were posting that mostly as a joke and you didn't have to declare if something was worth less than $100, or some other reasonable cutoff.

Nope, the cutoff is $1. Those jars of preserves from the story need to be declared, or it's a $100 penalty per jar.

Yeah, but that's the same for all businesses, and the IRS does see this as a business. The other cutoff is 100 transactions, if you're under that they don't care - if your barter is really more of a home-based hobby, you might not hit that. (I think 1000 transactions or less than $600 total value would make more sense.) Plus any business doesn't have to report a 1099 for your services if the total amount of labor is for under $600, so you can skate by doing a few hours of work here and there.

Another pound of flesh is that you're required to file a 1099-B per transaction; seriously, you have to get the SSN of everyone you gave a jar of jam to in exchange for dog walking or lawn mowing. It's a good idea to join one of the big bartering organizations so that you limit your required recordkeeping to raw amount for anyone else within that org.

Krieghund: meat0918: Remember people.

The IRS still wants their pound of flesh, even if you barter something.

I knew you had to declare barter income, but I assumed you were posting that mostly as a joke and you didn't have to declare if something was worth less than $100, or some other reasonable cutoff.

Nope, the cutoff is $1. Those jars of preserves from the story need to be declared, or it's a $100 penalty per jar.

i see two issues with the IRS on this one. you could just say it was a gift (you gave them a gift, they gave you a gift) or you could say you only would charge 99 cents for a jar of preserves, niet?

Food swapping is not sweeping the nation in any way, shape or form. Just looking at that article is embarassing to humanity.

Jon iz teh kewl: i was thinking of cum swappng
anyone else

Meh, I was thinking of 'key swapping'

/you all pile your keys, pick one, and whoever...
//Oh, nevermind

i was thinking of cum swappng
anyone else