This sounds like a riff on the old Mitch Hedberg joke about getting a receipt for a donut:
We do not need to bring ink and paper into this transaction. You can just hand me the corn and I can just hand you the lard. When am I going to need to prove I traded for corn? "You got a receipt for that corn?!" "It's at home... in my filing cabinet... under C... for 'corn.'"
You might not have been serious, but you do it on a cash basis. You calculate the cash value of the corn and the lard. Your income is the higher value, and your cost basis is whichever one you gave up, leading to either a profit or a loss. Talk to a tax professional for the rules regarding your ability to write off losses (if you were the losing party) - it isn't automatic or complete.
You still need to report taxes on bartering:
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p525#en_US_2019_publink1000229343
don't ask don't tell?
How does one calculate a trade of 25 bushels of corn for a 1/2 barrel of Lard for tax purposes?
Split the cost of rope for the tax mans neuse
This sounds like a riff on the old Mitch Hedberg joke about getting a receipt for a donut:
We do not need to bring ink and paper into this transaction. You can just hand me the corn and I can just hand you the lard. When am I going to need to prove I traded for corn? "You got a receipt for that corn?!" "It's at home... in my filing cabinet... under C... for 'corn.'"
i used to like mitch hedberg. i still do, but i used to, too.
You might not have been serious, but you do it on a cash basis. You calculate the cash value of the corn and the lard. Your income is the higher value, and your cost basis is whichever one you gave up, leading to either a profit or a loss. Talk to a tax professional for the rules regarding your ability to write off losses (if you were the losing party) - it isn't automatic or complete.