[ale] [OT] (but computer and cryptography related) Bitcoin, Litecoin

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 03/30/2013 08:15 PM, Mike Harrison wrote:
>> That'd be like saying "I would love to barter with you, but I'm not sure
>> that it's legal for me to trade my 22" monitor for your stack of
>> raspberry pi systems, since my 22" monitor isn't blessed by the Treasury
>> Department as currency..."
> 
> Just remember to pay the tax man his percentage due, when apropos, in USD.

Hence the bit (later on) about the good-faith attempts to reconcile a
barter style transaction on books.

I don't keep books in anything but USD, I don't know about anyone else,
but I find it hard enough to do it with a single currency.  :-)

Since every transaction must have a USD value associated with it,
good-faith and reasonable attempts must be made to reconcile a barter
transaction with book-values.  In many cases, fair market value can be
used to represent the sides of a barter transaction, and they should be
approximately equal---and in that case, they can be treated as equal, if
they are close enough.

However, if I execute a barter transaction where I trade you something
that can be shown to be worth only a few bucks, reasonably, on a
good-faith basis, and you give me something that is worth a few hundred
bucks, reasonably, on a good-faith basis, then I have received "income"
and must record that based on FMV.

The real problem comes when you cannot easily determine FMV for one or
both sides of a barter transaction.  Then a bit more effort has to be
done (and in such a case I simply wouldn't make the trade---I am
somewhat lazy in that regard).

	--- Mike

-- 
Michael B. Trausch, President
Naunet Corporation

Telephone: (678) 287-0693 x130
Toll-free: (888) 494-5810 x130
FAX: (678) 287-0693

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