Legal
Barter and tax
Not tax advice. This is a plain summary of something people are commonly surprised by. Talk to an accountant about your own situation.
No money moved. Is it still income?
Generally, yes. In the US and most comparable jurisdictions, the fair market value of services you receive in a trade is treated as income, and so is the value of what you provide. Both sides of a barter usually have something to report — not just one.
What Cambulance records
Every barter agreement stores an agreed dollar value for each side, alongside the Value Points. That is deliberate: Value Points are a comparison tool we invented and mean nothing to a tax authority, whereas the dollar figures are the numbers that matter. You can export your completed agreements from your account.
Value Points are not currency
They are not money, not a cryptocurrency, not redeemable, and have no value outside this platform. They exist so you can compare a website build against a content shoot without arguing about dollars first.
What we do not do
We do not file anything on your behalf, do not currently issue tax forms for barter transactions, and do not withhold anything. If your trading volume grows, ask an accountant whether barter-exchange reporting rules apply to you.