Hacker News Reader

Comment by SoftTalker | Hacker News Reader

> If you’re hiring a grad student

Be careful with this one. If the student is here on a visa, they are not allowed to have outside employment. Many do have "under the table" income of course, because graduate stipends are poverty-level at most schools, but it could get them in trouble.

View on HN

>Note that you can replace “hire” or “buy” with “barter for” or “find a DIY guide to” nearly everywhere below. E.g. you can clean the bathroom in exchange for your housemate doing a couple hours research for you.

I've been wondering about this. A quick Google reveals that barter is indeed taxable. This specific example might be silly, but would it be taxed according to the market rate for toilet cleaning services?

If I only barter how do I make money to pay taxes?

Doesn’t matter— none of us are allowed to opt-out of the system.

Pay taxes in goats or whatever?

Hmm, are you on the hook if they don't disclose this?

Of verifying that your employee can legally work? Yes, I think so - I'm not in HR, but is that not the specific reason they always take 1 or 2 forms of ID and fill out paperwork when starting a new job? One form to prove your identity, and the other to prove you can legally work? (Or a passport for both)

I was not thinking this to be a payroll position. Just a consulting / one-off transaction. In those situations, I haven't heard of any verification of immigration documents... maybe its common, I don't know.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com