Are gift cards considered currency or an object?
<p>In the eyes of the IRS, are gift cards viewed as an object or as currency?  Like if I were to accept gift cards as payment for items I sell in an online store, am I accepting dollars or am I trading property with my customers?  Do they differentiate between a physical gift card and a 'virtual gift card', as in an identification code that operates exactly like a gift card, minus the physical plastic card with a magnetic strip.</p>

<h2>In the eyes of the IRS, income is income</h2>
<p>It doesn't matter if that income is in the form of dollars, or gift cards, or red kidney beans, so long as you pay the correct tax on the income the IRS is happy.</p>

<p>A gift card, physical or virtual, is evidence of a debt owed by the store (or possibly a third party backer) to the cardholder.n many ways it is similar to an IOU, except that many IOUs are negotiable instruments, while most (if not all) gift cards are not; and most IOUs are transferable, while a significant number of gift cards are no validly transferable.</p>

property currency tax-law sec irs