Michael S. Lorrey, <mike@datamann.com>, writes:
> An internet based barter system would evade all of these bases:
> a) the internet (at least in the US) is completely private, the government owns
> none of it.
> b) the barter marketplace is a privately maintained entity that provides for its
> own security and indemnification through encryption and insurance
> c) barter transactions will not use the fiat money issued by the federal reserve
> or securities offered by the Treasury
etc.
Despite these philosophical arguments, be aware that there are specific
laws which apply to barter exchanges. Some of us were looking into
starting an Internet based barter service several years ago. It turns
out that barter services are well regulated entities. The service must
get the SSN of each participant and report transactions to the government,
I think on a form 1099 or equivalent.
Perhaps by running the barter exchange in an offshore domain which
does not collect income taxes, the server could avoid these regulations.
Then it would be up to the individuals to voluntarily report their income,
which in practice would be hard for the government to audit.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:04:41 MDT