Does payment in goods count as “income” for tax purposes?
The IRS defines income quite specifically. On the topic What is Taxable and Nontaxable Income, they note: You can receive income in the form of money, property, or services. This section discusses many kinds of income that are taxable or nontaxable. It includes discussions on employee wages and fringe benefits, and income from bartering, partnerships, S corporations, and royalties.  Bartering, or giving someone wages (or similar) in something other than currency (or some other specifically defined things, like fringe benefits), is taxed at fair market value: Bartering Bartering is an exchange of property or services. You must include in your income, at the time received, the fair market value of property or services you receive in bartering. For additional information, Refer to Tax Topic 420 - Bartering Income and Barter Exchanges. Bartering is more specifically covered in Topic 420 - Bartering Income: You must include in gross income in the year of receipt the fair market value of goods or services received from bartering. Generally, you report this income on Form 1040, Schedule C (PDF), Profit or Loss from Business (Sole Proprietorship), or Form 1040, Schedule C-EZ (PDF), Net Profit from Business (Sole Proprietorship). If you failed to report this income, correct your return by filing a Form 1040X (PDF), Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. Refer to Topic 308 for information on filing an amended return. More details about income in general beyond the above articles is available in Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income.  It goes into great detail about different kinds of income. In your example, you'd have to calculate the fair market value of an avocado, and then determine how much cash-equivalent you were paid in.  The IRS wouldn't necessarily tell you what that value was; you'd calculate it based on something you feel you could justify to them afterwards.  The way I'd do it would be to write down the price of avocados at each pay period, and apply a dollar-cost-averaging type method to determine the total pay's fair value.   While the avocado example is of course largely absurd, the advent of bitcoins has made this much more relevant.  Publication 525 has this to say about virtual currency: Virtual Currency.   If your employer gives you virtual currency (such as Bitcoin) as payment for your services, you must include the fair market value of the currency in your income. The fair market value of virtual currency (such as Bitcoin) paid as wages is subject to federal income tax withholding, Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) tax, and Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) tax and must be reported on Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Gold would be fundamentally similar - although I am not sure it's legal to pay someone in gold; assuming it were, though, its fair market value would be again the definition of income.  Similarly, if you're paid in another country's currency, the US dollar equivalent of that is what you'll pay taxes on, at the fair market value of that currency in US dollars.
"From April 2017 the plan is that there is now also going to be a ""Lifetime ISA"" (in addition to the Help to Buy ISA). Assuming those plans do not change, they government will give 25% after each year until you are 50, and the maximum you can put in per year will be £4000. Catches:  You can only take the money out for certain ""life events"", currently: Buying a house below £450000 anywhere in the country (not just London).  Passing 60 years of age. If you take it out before or for another reason, you lose the government bonus plus 5%, ie. it currently looks like you will be left with 95% of the total of the money you paid in. You cannot use the bonus payments from this one together with bonus payments from a Help to Buy ISA to buy a home. However you can transfer an existing Help to Buy ISA into this one come 2017. While you are not asking about pensions, it is worth mentioning for other readers that while 25% interest per year sounds great, if you use it for pension purposes, consider that this is after tax, so if you pay mostly 20% tax on your income the difference is not that big (and if your employer matches your contributions up to a point, then it may not be worth it). If you pay a significant amount of tax at 40% or higher, then it may not make sense for pension purposes. Tax bands and the ""rates"" on this ISA may change, of course. On the other hand, if you intend to use the money for a house/flat purchase in 2 or more years' time, then it would seem like a good option. For you specifically: This ""only"" covers £4000 per year, ie. not the full amount you talked about, but it is likely a good idea for you to spread things out anyway. That way, if one thing turns out to be not as good as other alternatives it has less impact - it is less likely that all your schemes will turn out to be bad luck. Within the M25 the £450000 limit may restrict you to a small house or flat in 5-10 years time. Again, prices may stall as they seem barely sustainable now. But it is hard to predict (measures like this may help push them upwards :) ).  On the plus side, you could then still use the money for pension although I have a hard time seeing governments not adjusting this sort of account between now and your 60th birthday. Like pension funds, there is an element of luck/gambling involved and I think a good strategy is to spread things if you can." "&gt;SS is not an investment. It is a Tax. Learn the difference. Thus you pay for it with the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA). It is not an investment, you do not have an account with your money, it has always been a pay as you go plan, just like medicare, funds for schools, and all the other programs.   SS is collected like a tax, but if it is infact a tax, why can I opt out of it? Come on, you really aren't trying to win an arguement about SS by saying its a ""tax"" and not a ""investment"". That's seriously the weakest bullshit, who the fuck cares the symantics of how its ""collected"".. The arguement is still the same, with no USA no SS. It is, therefore, a ponzi by definition.   &gt;The US government wrote the laws that specify exactly who can opt out. Most people cannot just opt out because they don't meet the criteria. Again you're wrong.    Joining and quitting Obtaining a Social Security number for a child is voluntary.[26] Further, there is no general legal requirement that individuals join the Social Security program (although, under normal circumstances, FICA taxes must be collected anyway). Although the Social Security Act itself does not require a person to have a Social Security Number (SSN) to live and work in the United States,[27] the Internal Revenue Code does generally require the use of the social security number by individuals for federal tax purposes: The social security account number issued to an individual for purposes of section 205(c)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act shall, except as shall otherwise be specified under regulations of the Secretary [of the Treasury or his delegate], be used as the identifying number for such individual for purposes of this title.[28] Importantly, most parents apply for Social Security numbers for their dependent children in order to[29] include them on their income tax returns as a dependent. Everyone filing a tax return, as taxpayer or spouse, must have a Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) since the IRS is unable to process returns or post payments for anyone without an SSN or TIN. The FICA taxes are imposed on all workers and self-employed persons. Employers are required[30] to report wages for covered employment to Social Security for processing Forms W-2 and W-3. There are some specific wages which are not a part of the Social Security program (discussed below). Internal Revenue Code provisions section 3101[31] imposes payroll taxes on individuals and employer matching taxes. Section 3102[32] mandates that employers deduct these payroll taxes from workers' wages before they are paid. Generally, the payroll tax is imposed on everyone in employment earning ""wages"" as defined in 3121[33] of the Internal Revenue Code.[34] and also taxes[35] net earnings from self-employment.[36]  **Seriously, you need to learn how to use google asshole. Stop looking like an idiot and posting blatent lies.**" "I can't vouch for Australian law, but in the US there is actually a recognized mechanism for ""in-family loans"" which ensures that it's all fully documented for tax purposes, including filing it as an official second mortgage. (Just did that recently in my own family, which is why I'm aware of it.) We're required to charge at least some interest (there's a minimum set, currently around 0.3%), and the interest is taxable income, and it is wise to get a lawyer to draw up the paperwork (there are a few services which specialize in this, charging a flat fee of about US$700 if the loan is standard enough that they can handle it as fill-in-the-blank), but outside of that it's pretty painless. This can also be used as a way of shifting gift limits from year to year -- if you issue a loan, and then gift the recipient with the payments each year (including the payments), you've effectively spread the immediate transfer of money over multiple years of taxes. Of course it does cost you the legal paperwork and the tax in the interest (which they're still ""paying"" out of your gift), but it can be a useful tool, and it's one that wasn't well known until recently. Again: This is all US codes, posted only for comparison (and for the benefit of US readers). It may be completely irrelevant. But it may be worth investigating whether Oz has something similar." From WePay (GoFundMe's payment processor) support. I received only gifts and donations.  Will I receive a Form 1099-K?   As of 2015, the IRS has clarified that WePay is not required to send    a Form 1099-K with respect to payments that are made solely as gifts   or donations.  The purpose of Form 1099-K is to report payments for   the provision of goods or services, which may be subject to tax.   Gifts and donations typically are not reported as income by recipients,   so it is not necessary to send them a Form 1099-K.   https://support.wepay.com/hc/en-us/articles/203609483-Tax-Reporting "I think you misunderstand the purpose of the liability account.  I would suggest you review the standard accounting model, but to give you a brief overview: Income and expenses are money coming into and out of your possession.  They are the pipes flowing into and out of your ""box"".  Inside your box, you have assets (bank, savings, cash, etc) and liabilities (credit cards, unpaid debts, etc).  Money can flow into and out of either asset or liability accounts, for example: deposit a payment (income to asset), buy office supplies with cash (asset to expense), pay a bill with credit card (liability to expense), customer pays one of your debts directly (income to liability).  Paying off a debt with an asset does not affect your overall net worth, so paying a check to your credit card bill (asset to liability) doesn't decrease your total balance, it merely moves the value from one bucket to another. Now to your question: Mandatory payments, such as taxes or insurance (or for that matter, utilities, rent, food- all things that ""must"" be bought occasionally) are not liabilities, instead they are all expenses.  They might be paid FROM a liability account, if they are paid on credit for example, but the money still flows from liability to expense.  In my own records I have Expense:Taxes and Expense:Insurance, with sub-accounts in each.  Where the money comes from depends entirely on how I pay my bills, whether from cash or banks (asset) or whether it's a charge (liability).  Sometimes you receive payments back from an insurance company.  I find that rather than treating insurance premiums as a positive balance in a liability (with eventual payments as debits to the liability account), it is better to treat any payment from the insurance as income. Hope that helps!" In THEORY, you don't have to pay income tax in such a situation. In actual fact, the transaction looks suspicious because the money went into your account.  Presumably, the money should have gone OUT of your account in equal amount.  Having allowed all this to happen, what you need to do is to DOCUMENT this activity ASAP. The first thing to do is to retain the paperwork showing the sending of the funds to the third party. The second thing to do is to ask your friend for a letter dated TODAY (don't use an earlier date) as to why the money was delivered into your account, and corroborating the fact that it was sent to the third party. Then if the IRS comes calling, you will have documentation to prove your point and protect yourself. Revenue does not equal income.  Income is, more or less, synonymous with profit. It is the amount of money earned after expenses.  A corporation is taxed on its revenue after its deductible expenses have been removed, the same as a person is.  It's kind of double taxation, but it's kind of the same argument as saying that payroll taxes in addition to income taxes are double taxation.  Also of note: taxes on dividends are lower than normal taxes because of this double taxation. This depends on the state law. In case of the State of New York - these are the criteria for sourcing the NY income: As a sole proprietor or partnership, your New York source income   includes: Business activities As a nonresident sole proprietor or partnership, you carry on a   business, trade, profession, or occupation within New York State if   you (or your business): As you can see, the qualification depends on the way you do business, and the amount of business transactions you have in New York. If it is not clear to you - talk to a CPA/EA licensed to practice in the State of New York to give you an advice.