What’s Happening In Today’s Marketplace...The Use Of Trade Exchanges & Corporate Barter Companies

(Part 3)

Mixing Trade Exchange Dollars With Non-Profit Time-Dollars

In Ashland (OR), a new idea is taking hold. OurNexChange, a for-profit trade exchange, will be interacting with a sister program called the Time-Dollar Community Exchange.

NexChange will charge a 3% to 7% transaction fee on every trade, while Time-Dollar intends to pay for “neighborly help” or volunteer work at a fixed rate of 16-credits per hour. The Time-Dollar Community Exchange is considered “community enhancement,” and can be accumulated untaxed.

Time-dollar credits will enable non-profit organizations to attract more volunteers, since they are paid in credits, and would promote their mission through exposure on the barter website at the same time.

Members of the trade exchange (OurNexChange) are able to trade more expensive professional services at the lower Time-Dollar Community Exchange rate as a form of “giving back to the community.” Time-dollars also can be used for the barter of used goods which, under IRS codes, are non-taxable.

Presently the IRS considers the commercial for-profit trade exchange and the non-profit Time-Dollar system to be “apples and oranges” i.e., different systems that should not be operated under the same corporation and technology.

The developer and owner of these systems, Sharon Miranda, is working with the IRS to allow members to use both systems, enabling transfer of credits from the trade exchange to the Time-Dollar accounts.