Time to think differently about how to pay
FORGET about getting cash out to pay the handyman, more and more people are using their time as a bankable currency.
Up to 5000 people are timebanking at 26 national branches, and more are joining weekly.
The system – introduced to New Zealand in 2004 – involves someone volunteering their time to one person, then ‘‘spending’’ that time by asking someone else to do something for them.
National and Canterbury coordinator Jules Lee said the Lyttelton branch had around 450 members at the time of the Christchurch quakes.
A Taranaki Timebank has grown from 163 members in December to 245.
Its coordinator Brittany Ryan and marketing coordinator Anja Niechziol said the group was mainly focused on building a sense of community among its members.
The possibilities of what can be exchanged through time-banking are almost limitless, with swimming lessons, digitising old photographs, baking and harakeke trimming among the services listed online.
‘‘I’ve posted a request for advice for my trip to Chile,’’ Niechziol said.
Massey University economics professor Christoph Schumacher said a bartering system could be hard to regulate and there would be no tax paid on the services or products.
Unlike a traditional system where the buyer was covered by laws such as the Consumer Guarantee Act, there were no such protections for people who offered their time for services or products.
An Inland Revenue spokesperson said Kiwis were required to pay tax on all forms of income, or at least declare that income as part of their annual tax return, but time-banking was effectively a more sophisticated form of bartering, known as counter trading.
‘‘A barter or exchange transaction is not considered ‘income’ in all cases.’’