What if my neighbor gives me a cow in exchange for help building a barn? (You must report the fair market value of that cow as ordinary income.)
Hahaha. That sort of thing happens all the time around the area where I live. Do you seriously think this sort of thing is EVER reported?
How do you think all the people around the rural area I live survive on $10 an hour? Everybody is fixing their buddy’s car for plumbing, or doing plumbing for electrical, or doing electrical for a bunch of beef. People just living their lives, government free.
It’s called a BARTER economy. Unless we have a Fascist, Communist or Nazi-like regime that spies on people, the IRS ( increasingly given snooping powers by the Fed ) cannot get anything out of it.
>>Hahaha. That sort of thing happens all the time around the area where I live. Do you seriously think this sort of thing is EVER reported?<<
In their defense, they are just providing the official answer to the the question.
If the IRS ever got return that actually LISTED a bartered cow they would probably blow it up and frame it as a once in a country’s lifetime event!