Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue • Hacker News Board

Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue

#171

Post by cjbgkagh » Sun, May 17, 2026, 3:11 PM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #168

cjbgkagh wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on jurisdiction, the US is unusual, most countries they’ll reassess you and it’s on you to prove them wrong. I did have to look it up, I didn’t know that the US was different in this way. I did have the California tax authority make a mistake and take money directly out of my account and there didn’t appear to be a way to fight it. It wasn’t enough to be worth hiring a lawyer over so I let it go but it did…

I'm a tax lawyer... CA FTB does not take money out of your account unless you have explicitly authorized it to do so and it definitely does not do so automatically. It only pulls specifically authorized amounts when specifically authorized to do so unless you have a garnishment order issued by a court. (I deal with the CA FTB on a daily basis.) You're also wrong about most other countries as well, with the exception…

It is possible my memory, Google, and now AI are all conspiring against me.

It was a vehicle registration issue for a car I had sold 10 years earlier, it got a parking ticket in CA and they used that as evidence I still had the car and owed registration fees. I had evidence the car was sold and had changed title many times since then before the parking ticket but they wouldn’t accept that. I didn’t go to court over this and the money disappeared from my account, I did get a phone call telling me what happened. I had not received any notice prior. As mentioned I’m sure I could have gotten a lawyer for this but legal fees would have exceeded the amount lost, perhaps in the future when I have a lawyer on retainer.

Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue

#172

Post by bryanlarsen » Sun, May 17, 2026, 11:21 PM UTC

jjav wrote: post #163

elil17 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A company can value it's services as it chooses. If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that. That's simply not true. You may get a certain amount of leeway, but it has to be reasonable.

> That's simply not true. You may get a certain amount of leeway, but it has to be reasonable. Where have you seen this? When I was doing consulting I could charge whatever rate I wanted. Usually around $200 but went up to $500 and down to $25 when doing a favor. Same type of work. At the enterprise level this is even more common. Nothing has a fixed price and the same service can be sold at wildly different prices t…

> I could charge whatever rate I wanted.

Sure, if you're charging cash. If you charge $25 and that's all you get, it's worth $25 by definition; being bad at business is allowed.

But if you're charging $25 and you're getting $25 and a favor, that work you're doing is actually worth more than $25 and the IRS expects you to declare the value of that favor as income. If you normally charge $500 but sometimes you charge $25 the IRS might look deeper to see what else you're getting in compensation.

You're highly likely to get away without declaring that favor, and there are certainly legal ways to avoid it too -- gifts, training/education, et cetera, but at it's base level it's income.

Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue

#173

Post by outside1234 » Mon, May 18, 2026, 7:27 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #132

outside1234 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have no scalable business model that yields profit outside of raising more investment, so yes, somehow they are still startups

A startup is a small, agile company that is trying to grow. Those things have more money than the world, and can't change anything about their business without the house of cards of their investment image falling down.

The classic definition of a startup is "A temporary entity in search of a scalable business model."

This incredibly still fits all of these entities.

Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue

#174

Post by Flundstrom2 » Tue, May 19, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

stephen_cagle wrote: post #167

Flundstrom2 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be a wealth tax and land value tax in Sweden (aka world champion of taxation), but they were abolished simply because being taxed yearly on an fixed asset doesn't mean you have the liquidity to pay the taxes from your income. They had also caused the some of the wealthiest people in the UK to be Swedes, IKEA being Swiss and Dutch, and a lot of other movements of capital to other countries. All in all, w…

Yeah, I hear you. And it is historically true. But why can't we just say "2% over a billion, 1% over a million; 50% if you choose to move your assets out of the country". It does not seem that unreasonable to insist that you keep your monies in the country that lead to your wealth?

Generally, billionaires have already moved their assets to tax-havens. Because it is the sane thing to do. And the minute a bill for anti-movement is scheduled for a vote, the rest will be moved before the bill comes into effect.

Instead of taxing leavers, one should provide tax cuts for returners. Their investment locally means jobs will be created locally and taxes will subsequently be paid locally anyway. Win-win for everyone.

Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue

#175

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 22, 2026, 10:03 PM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #169

thih9 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean they are fine with the things they won’t notice? Perhaps that is true.

No, depending on your accounting method the transaction we're discussing may be disregarded, so the net economic position of the taxpayers is no different. As a result the IRS is generally indifferent...so long as you maintain that method of accounting for future similar transactions.

[deleted]