Is barter taxable?
 

OK bear with me here.

Let's say I want a floor laying and the guy I employ to do it quotes £2K. Let's say he wants a new website and I quote him £2K. If he agrees to lay my floor in return for the website is anything taxable as if I paid them £2K they would pay tax on it and if they paid me £2K I would pay tax on that so strikes me it must be taxable in some form.

My mate says not!

Before the usual candidates start this is a purely hypothetical example arising from a statement I made about the fact that moving money around generates tax for the government. Keeping hold of it doesn't. Then we got onto discussing the system of barter... yep the winter evenings just fly by in my house ;) :D

I believe that you would have to pay tax.

The way the system sees things is to make it as complicated as possible, they would want you to pay him the 2k and get a receipt etc and then for him to pay you 2k and get a receipt.

You could claim that the room you were having flooring done in was used for work purposes and get out of it that way.:D

ps I'm assuming everyone is self employed here.

wait scratch that.

you could each just do it for free, l think......oh who cares, god damn you.

Yes that is what I think too. My mate however is adamant that as long as you do both jobs as 'a favour' and don't make a habit of it or it isn't your main line of business you can get away with it.

To my guess, you may be able to call this exchange of work a voluntary or good will work, and then, there may not be any tax implication. But if you're very literal and ethical like Roy Cropper from Corrie, take 2k off him for the job you do, and pay your tax on it. Then give that 2k back to him for the job he does for you, and he pays his tax on that.

By the way, I may lay a floor for someone for 2k, but there's no way I'll pay 2k to anyone for making me a website- fvvk that! :D For that reason, I'd prefer Roy Cropper method, anyway.

:lol1::lol1::lol1::lol1: Depends on the website Swati, but LOL! :D

Alternatively you could both just do it and not tell anyone.

Hours of proper toil in exchange for a few button clicks


If he's any sense , he will give you an invoice

It's hypothetical... as stated in the OP. I would lay my own floor anyway, how hard can it be? :lol1:

How can you pay tax on something you didn't get, giving your time to someone is free and can't be taxed.

Agree.

No actual money has changed hands.

I've done it several times - bit of decorating in lieu of rent on my lock-up.

Or, say both jobs are £50, do invoices etc. declare it, pay tax on that, everybody's happy. I would just do it and say nothing.

It's not that, I'm just interested to know the legal standpoint.

Could always give your tax office a call.

(Pretend you're someone off here, just in case.... :D )

I think (from a quick google mind) you do have to "account" for it, and may have a tax liability

dont even think using your real name Mr Stavropoulos

:lol1::lol1::lol1:

Yes that is what I think. It's nothing more than an interesting conundrum, as I said... the winter evenings and all that ;)

Yep, seems Hodgy is correct...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b26a9dfa-3...#axzz3QcmJ6npv


Fcukers aren't they?
Even have you when you don't charge anything!

So basically, doing something for someone that isn't your line of work is ok.
I'm going to be a Gigolo and shag wimmins for free.

Get in.

Good find :thumb: I knew I was right ;) :D

I would want to charge him the 2k and him knock the vat off for me.....I don't suppose that helps.

l wouldn't say their ****ers, anyone who knows what it is like to be self employed will know you pay **** all in the way of tax. Some of my friends in farming used to claim for dog food on the basis it was a working dog, the thing is though, they had no dog.:lol1:

If you follow the letter of the law, maybe, then they would be ****ers but the system lets you get away with so much it's probably a bit unsporting to call them names. (****ers :D)

Me too.:cool:

I'm self employed and I don't pay fcuk all.

Same. :)







..Just a minute , you drive a porch :Suspiciou

Chris

Legally it is taxable as you've benefitted to the sum of £2,000, irrespectve of how you have been paid.

If, however, you do a favour for a mate for no charge and your mate does a favour for you for no charge then yes, of course you'll get away with it, unless some f*cker on here shops you to HMRC :lol1:

The billions they avoid,steal & squander.The millions they have in bonuses.
The MP's fiddling every conceivable expense.The back door deals they do the promises of jobs sitting on boards....and on and on and on.................


& you are even thinking about it.:confused::cuckoo::cuckoo::brickwall

Does anyone know where f1_fan lives, I'll report him, just give me the chance. :lol1:

i laid the floor myself gov, honestly ;)

its one of those situations that would actualy stay 'off the books'

Don't be a ****ing knob, it's just theoretical, unless you're joking then sorry.:D

It's somewhere op norf, I noticed he's pretty cagey about it

:lol1::lol1::lol1::lol1:

The conversation arose as I pointed out to a mate of mine that the more we move money around the more disappears in taxation. For example you earn £1K and pay a percentage of it as tax and a further percentage as NI. What you have left you take to a shop and buy something a percentage of which disappears as VAT. The shopkeeper has your remaining money but a percentage of that will be his profits which get taxed, the remainder less his overheads he pays himself as income and gets taxed. He takes the remainder of this to another shop to buy something and so on and so forth.

That was when my mate said we should use a system of barter more as then we could avoid the taxation to an extent.

I stated yes but I bet its counted as a benefit therefore taxable.... he said no. Hence the question!

The reason I chose laying a floor as an example is it is in my head right now as I am in the middle of doing just that after getting stupid quotes for having it done by a fitter..... maybe I should have offered them a website ;) :lo1l: