Just to show how insidious the IRS is in situations similar to this, it has a 'bartering tax center' to deal with taxing economic activity in which no dollars w

Just to show how insidious the IRS is in situations similar to this, it has a 'bartering tax center' to deal with taxing economic activity in which no dollars were exchanged. I'm not completely familiar with how it functions, although you can look up more details [1]. I would not be surprised if in any case that rancher Joe decides to trade 2 head of cattle for farmer Bill's old tractor, there is a tax obligation that needs to be paid. Of course, this probably doesn't actually get paid very often. 1: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Bartering-Tax-Center# http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employ...