 Okay, kinds of income. You must report on your tax return all income you receive from your business unless it is excluded by law. That's the general stance of the IRS, same as normal income is the same as business income. You got income unless the IRS says otherwise, they want a piece of it. So in most cases, your business income will be in the form of cash, checks, credit card charges and so on. That's the point of cash. The point of cash is to have a measure of payment so that we can receive a measure of payment. So you're usually gonna get paid in some form of cash denomination, right? But business income can be in other forms such as property or services. People often, because we use cash so much these days, think that if I get something other than cash, I barter, I trade, it's no longer income. That's not true, you still got paid and you gotta figure out what the income is, although it's less trackable, less traceable and less easy to understand or know what the dollar amount is because you're no longer using the ruler of cash to facilitate the transaction. But you can do that, you can trade and that might work in certain situations. So these and other types of income are explained next. So caution, so if you are a US citizen who has a business income from sources outside the United States for an income, you must report that income on your tax return unless it is exempt from tax under US law. So now if you're a US citizen, you have US income tax responsibilities, you're maybe subject to foreign tax as well in that case. And hopefully the two countries have some agreement on how they're going to deal with that in terms of who's gonna be basically benefiting from the taxes. That's a specialized type of situation that if you're working in the tax area, you could specialize in dealing with people that have income in multiple countries, for example. So if you live outside the United States, you may be able to exclude part or all of your foreign source business income for details you could see publication 54, tax guide for US citizens. Why? Because obviously if the income was earned elsewhere, you might be subject to the foreign country's tax rates. And if it wasn't the case, you'd be paying twice tax and that wouldn't be beneficial for citizens. So bartering or property, bartering. You can do a barter chain. Barter chain. Trading, in other words, for property or services. Bartering is an exchange of property or services. So I do a service for you. I make a restaurant, give you meals or something and you do a service for me, whatever it is that they do. And we barter, we trade, we don't use cash, okay? So you still have revenue generation. Now you've got a value how much you've received for income purposes that way. So you must include in your gross receipts at the time received the fair market value of property or services you received in exchange for something else. So if you exchange services with another person and you both have agreed ahead of time on the value of the services, that value will be accepted as the fair market value unless the value can be shown to be otherwise. So clearly most of the time the services being provided, you would think are your standard services that have a fair market value and you would be trading them for services of an equivalent value if you're doing a free market exchange typically. So example one, you are a self-employed lawyer. You perform legal services for a client, a small corporation and payment for your services you receive shares of stock in the corporation. This reminds me of that, what was it, Daredevil movie where he kept doing work for like poor people and they fade them like in fish that the guy caught out of the, and stuff. Any case, that was just a side note. Let's back to the thing. You're a lawyer and payment for your services you receive shares of stock in the corporation. So you must include the fair market value of the shares in income, clearly. So example two, you are an artist and create a work of art to compensate your landlord for the rent free use of your apartment. All right? Dave, I need that apartment, my apartment is tight. So you must include the fair rental value of the apartment in your gross receipts because now you were provided something, you were provided use of the apartment. So it's not like you would have been paying rent, right? So now you have to pay the value of the rent you would. So your landlord must include the fair market value of the work of art in their rental income. So they got the work of art and they paid for it in essence, not with cash, but with the apartment. So example three, you are self-employed accountant. Both you and a house painter are members of a barter club and organization that each year gives its members a directory of members and the services each member provides. Members get in touch with other members directly and bargain for the value of the services to be formed. So to be performed. So in return for accounting services you provided for the house painter's business, the house painter painted your home. You must include in gross receipts the fair market value of the services you receive from the house painter. The house painter must include the fair market value of your accounting services in their gross receipts. Example four, you are a member of a barter club that uses credit unions to credit or debit members accounts for goods or services provided or received. As soon as units are credited to your account you can use them to buy goods or services or sell or transfer the units to other members. So we've got more complex kind of bartering situations where they are in essence creating their own kind of cash accounting system. So you must include the value of the credit units you received in your gross receipts for the tax year in which the units are credited to your account. They basically came up with another kind of form of cash in essence and that would be a form of valuation that you would think you got paid in something that you could buy stuff with which is kind of like cash. So then you would think you'd have to have the value of the stuff that you got paid in would be income you would think. So the dollar value of units received for services by an employee of the club who can use the units in the same manner as other members must be included in the employee's gross income for the tax year in which received it is wages subject to social security and Medicare taxes, FICA and FUTA taxes and income tax withholding. So not only you might also be subject to the Medicare social security. Okay, C publication 15 if you have that more complex example. Example number five, you operate a plumbing business and use the cash method of accounting. You join a barter club once again and agree to provide plumbing services to any member of a specified number of hours. Each member has access to a directory that lists the members of the club and the services available. Members contact each other directly and request services to be performed. You are not required to provide services unless requested by another member but you can use as many of the offered services as you wish without paying a fee. You must include the fair value of any services you receive from club members and your gross receipts when you receive them even if you have not provided any services to the club members.