By Mark DeTray
Thanks to the efforts of a core group of local volunteers, the task of establishing a county-wide time bank (aka, time exchange) is well underway. The local time exchange initiative is now ready to adopt a name and motto. To this end, all county residents are invited to participate in an informal name and motto ballot.
A temporary webpage has been set up with the ballot link and some background information at VisionOnOrcas. All votes must be received no later than February 15th to be counted. The online ballot can be found at: agosurveys.net/Survey
Once the name and motto have been determined and the affiliate membership has been received from TimeBanks USA, the temporary webpage will be replaced with an interactive website specific to our county-wide time exchange. Morgan Meadows, acting coordinator for the time exchange initiative, anticipates the website and corresponding database will be up and running and ready for folks to enroll no later than March 1st.
Ongoing workshops and presentations, as well as fundraising events, are now being organized by a growing number of member-volunteers; specific dates and times will be posted in local community calendars.
This initiative is off to a good start and well on its way to providing a county-wide network that will strengthen our island communities. We look forward to receiving everyone’s input and to announcing the results of the ballot.
Mark DeTray is a Community Volunteer for the Time Bank
First off, I am not an accountant so this is just my understanding of things. If I am off base, I would welcome being corrected by a CPA or other person more knowledgable of the tax code.
The time exchange concept is not a new concept, it is better known as bartering. People participating should be cautioned that the IRS considers it to be taxable income. For the specifics you can refer to https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html. The IRS also requires formalized barter clubs or organizations to submit 1099s on all transactions.
Since the IRS considers it taxable income, I’d bet that Washington state would also consider it as labor subject to sales tax. That means that the county and even Friday Harbor, if the work takes place within the town limits, would probably consider it taxable.
In these days of tight budgets and not enough money to go around, people are looking for ways to make ends meet, Bartering, or time exchange, is an attractive means of accomplishing that. Unfortunately, the government is also looking for any means to get additional revenue so I’m sure that the new wave of bartering clubs will eventually attract their attention. Attention that could result in financial penalties for the participants.
There is a long tradition of bartering services here in the islands, and it is a great way of sharing the workload of a small community. “Sam” helps prune some apple trees and gets some apples in exchange. “Suzi” fixes “Tom’s” car and “Tom” repairs the roof of “Suzi’s” garage. All is well and good, until you have Sam, Suzi, and Tom put these transactions into a computer system or even a paper log book where they can be examined at a later time.