Barter income is treated the same as cash income. There are no tax advantages or disadvantages to bartering. Trading should be considered a marketing tool, not a tax tool. Barter Business (BBU) provides your company with a 1099B at the end of the year for all of the sales you have consummated on our network. Cash purchases that are normally tax deductible as business expenses are also tax deductible when purchased on trade.
Barter produces new business, allowing you to expand your market and maintain your cash-paying customers. Barter conserves cash. For example: you own a hotel that has ten vacant rooms at $100/night and you need a new copy machine priced at $1,000. Barter provides the way in which you can buy your copier, fill your rooms (at your cost on the rooms) and maintain your cash. The same is true for filling empty tables for restaurants, moving inventory for retailers and manufacturers, or increasing billable hours for service businesses. Barter provides a competitive edge because barter clients are new clients that bypass competing businesses to do business at your establishment while you maintain your existing cash clients.
A trade exchange eliminates the restrictions of one-on-one trading where each business must want what the other has to offer. A BBU Trade Consultant works with you to bring your company new sales, increased market share and to minimize cash outlay for everyday business expenses. Clients of an exchange use trade dollars, instead of cash, to handle their transactions.
An exchange acts as a third party record keeper, providing monthly statements to clients, which reflects all trade purchases, sales, and a current trade dollar balance.
Globally, over 470,000 businesses of all types are use barter. It is estimated that 65% of Fortune 500 companies engage in barter to one degree or another.
There is a one-time membership investment to establish your business account. Transaction and modest monthly fees cover accounting, marketing, promotions and member services.
Every member business is assigned a Trade Consultant in our office. They do a complete spending analysis with you on your current purchasing as well as projections for your business in the future. You can spend your trade in many of the same ways you spend your cash. If your products or services are in high demand, we are happy to call you first and tell you who is looking to purchase from you and what their needs are. This way you know ahead of time what the job entails and are able to decide if you can handle more business.
Just like a bank, we encourage businesses to apply for a barter line of credit. If you qualify, you can begin purchasing immediately.
Prices quoted to barter clients are the same as prices quoted to cash paying customers. Business owners are educated shoppers. Barter is simply a mode of payment – just like a credit card or cash.
Trade exchanges participate in reciprocal trade relationships with other exchanges offering a multitude of additional barter opportunities. For instance, our members’ travel requests are fulfilled on an available basis, through our vast Global Network. We also help our local businesses looking to open new markets or acquire goods from across the country by using the distribution channels we connect to, nationwide.