News All the latest from Ireland’s National B2B Trade Exchange Winter 2006 / Issue 2 Better cash flow • Lower costs • More sales • More customers • More profit

“ Don’t Pay for it…….Trade for it” Dear Member, Many of our most active members have come to us by referral from their accountants or financial advisers. This is understandable since it is they who can see the cost base, margins, budgets and spare capacity and therefore the compatibility and benefits for their client of membership. Indeed, a number of substantial accounting firms are highly pro-active Tradefirst members and some of the enviable written references in praise of the system come from financial directors. So it came as a bit of a surprise some weeks ago, while in the office, I happened to get wind of a call that came in from one of the Tradefirst members who called to say that he would have to stop trading on Tradefirst by the end of the month. This came as a bit of a surprise since the same member had claimed to be very happy with the system until very recently. The reason, he said, was that his accountant had advised him that: “if it’s not paid for in Euro’s, it’s not legal or tax compliant“, effectively declaring Tradefirst as somehow illegitimate. I was obviously curious to know if the member had argued the point or if any contact had been made with the accountant in question from this office. It turns out that the member had argued with him at length

but the accountant refused to telephone Tradefirst, look up the web site or engage in any form of research at all but stuck to his guns that this “simply could’nt be right”.

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Having quickly recovered from the initial pangs of abhorrence resulting from the perfect blend of arrogance, ignorance and stubbornness still lingering in the 21st century, I suggested that if he was so adamant that it was wrong, he should get down to the Revenue head office on Tara Street without delay and turn himself in for engaging in the illicit business of trading in his car at the main dealers, the purest form of direct barter people do every day: since the dealer does not buy your old car and then sell you a new one: - Instead he trades or exchanges the old one in part payment of the new one.

What a Show!!!

While these incidents are fairly isolated, I thought it a good idea to see if we could include in this issue the true facts on The Revenues’ position and the accountability for Tradefirst / contra / barter transactions, VAT etc, now detailed on page eight of this issue. So if you’re financial advisor is of the same frame of mind as our accountant friend and thinks that the mere mention of the word contra or barter is likely to have him struck off, this page will make for some interesting reading.

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