Barter Industry Fortunate To Have IRTA’s Whitney Working On Their Behalf

IRTA Executive Director Ron Whitney continued his efforts to alleviate the IRS non-matching TIN problems many trade exchange owners are currently suffering through. Meetings with IRPAC (Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee) resumed on January 26 in Washington (DC) where he continued to push for implementation of the recommendations that were presented at the October 24, 2007, meeting.

Recommendations from last year’s meeting report stated that:

·         New language be considered for the B-Notices that are specific to the barter industry, and or;

·         Publication 1281 be amended to reflect the issues unique to the barter industry.

Additionally, Whitney met with Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate, alerting her to a systemic problem the barter industry is currently experiencing. Many exchanges have reported that they have been hit with civil penalties for non-matching TINs without ever receiving a 972CG Notice of Proposed Penalty Letter.

Rather, these exchanges have received a CP-2100 notice that simply notifies exchanges of the accounts that have non-matching TIN problems, but does not assert a penalty will be forthcoming. Exchanges should receive a 972CG Notice of Proposed Penalty letter after they receive the CP-2100 letter, but in many cases this is not happening, and the cases are going directly to penalty and collection.

Whitney received assurances from Olson that this problem would be “looked into” by the National Taxpayers Advocates office with the hope that it will be corrected soon.

For an update on third-party record-keeping for barter exchanges, click here.

Barter Catalyst For Huge Oprah/Discovery Cable Network Deal

At BarterNews, we have been contending for years that the “Best & Brightest” use barter in the building of their wealth…here is another example of that message.

Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey have announced a deal where the Discovery Health network will be bartered to Winfrey next year, and become the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

The cash-free transaction involved Winfrey turning over half ownership of Oprah.com (her web site with 6 million unique visitors a month) to Discovery, while the communications company makes her chairman of the network which is currently seen in 68 million homes. The two entities (Harpo Production and Discovery) will be joint owners...50/50 in ownership and profits.

What’s the value of the deal? Hard to say at this point as Winfrey’s star power will generate greater revenue from cable companies once she comes aboard with her programming in mid 2009. But cable TV networks don’t come cheap. When Microsoft invested in MSNBC back in 1996 it put up $300 million for its half stake in a startup. (And Bill Gates is a tough negotiator.)

So Oprah’s “media empire” includes:

1.      Her top-rated TV talk show

2.   A satellite radio network (XM Radio)

3.   A web site

4.   TV movies made under her banner

5.   Now the OWN TV Network (68 million potential viewers, with coverage in 2/3 of the nation’s homes)

The focus of the channel will be Oprah’s brand—to educate and inspire people to live the best life they can. Some of Winfrey’s stable of regular contributors could be expected to be part of the programming. Winfrey’s current talk show, as well as rights to use of reruns, is spoken for until the end of the 2010/2011 season.

According to Winfrey, she made an entry in her diary May 24, 1992, about an idea for creating her own TV network...15 years later it’s a reality, and barter once again was the catalyst for a huge deal.

Oprah’s dream has come true. She will now have the opportunity to do this 24-hours a day on a platform that goes on forever.

ITEX CEO Likes What He Sees — Buys Part Of Blogging Company

ITEX Corporation (OTCBB:ITEX) announced it was teaming with MyTypes.com, an online Seattle company, and had made an equity investment in the private company.

Steven White, chairman and CEO stated, “MyTypes has developed a very customer-centric method to make business blogging easier and friendlier. We are pleased to be able to make the benefits and convenience of MyTypes' services available to our thousands of members utilizing ITEX dollars.

“Blogging is only a small part of how MyTypes will assist us. The ITEX Marketplace will also be made available to the expanding MyTypes business community, currently with more than 5,000 blogs and ranking in the top 10 of major search engine placement for blog-related keywords.”

He continued, “We were so impressed with their team that ITEX also took a 15% equity position in MyTypes. As part of our collaboration, two MyTypes senior software engineers have been retained to work on our in-house initiatives over the next three months. This should prove to be a win-win situation for all parties.”

“ITEX and MyTypes share a similar commitment to making the online marketplace easy to use, and creating a positive and profitable business community for small business,” said Vipin Singh, co-founder and CEO of MyTypes.

“Just as ITEX created a new and better way for small business to increase sales, MyTypes has developed a powerful business blogging platform with built-in promotion for better rankings in the search engines for its business community. We’re really looking forward to proving our value throughout the trading community and building the world’s largest small-business community and online marketplace.”

IMS Reveals Increases Across-The-Board For December 2007

International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) reports increases in sales volume and revenue for December.

·         Trade volume for the month exceeded $12.2 million, an increase of 4% over $11.7 million in December of 2006. (Trade volume reported by sales only — just one side of the transactions.)

·         Gross revenue billed was $1.4 million, compared to $1.1 for December of last year, a 27% increase.

·         New-client enrollments also were strong with 249 new members joining the barter network in December. This was an increase of 60% from the 155 new members signed up in December of 2006.

The totals listed above are taken from the company's internal records and have not been audited.

 For more information go to www.internationalmonetary.com.

TTI Announces Year-End Trading Activity

TeleTrade int’l (TTi) reported that for the year ending 2007, trading activity exceeded nearly $109 million on its global online platforms for independent trade exchanges. This reflects an increase of 7% over 2006. Total activity since its inception in 1999 exceeds $562 million

The eValues system (www.eValues.net) reflects nearly $60 million in transaction volume during 2007. Its online totals reached $245 million in activity since coming online in 2000. EValues clients have uninterrupted online trading access, daily trade opportunity broadcast e-mails, an inventory control system, comprehensive contact management, and an excellent accounting system.

TTi CEO Gary Lasater noted that the company has been developing and designing technology for the trade exchange industry for over 27 years. This year, the firm has plans to introduce a new version update of “revolutionary design” for its users. The time frame for the new update will be sometime prior to the third quarter of 2008.

For U.S. exchange members, TTi has been able to secure a relationship with the nation’s fourth largest private merchant service provider. Thus offering merchants the guaranteed lowest credit and debit processing rates and the ability to process credit, debit, discount and barter, programs from one terminal.

From further information contact: Gary Lasater at 303.840.7172 ext. 1, or e-mail at gary@teletrade.net.