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Responsible organized trade to drive global business growth and professionalism.

About Us

Empowering Global Business Through Ethical and Sustainable Organized Trade

The International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA) is dedicated to advancing the organized trade industry by promoting best practices, ethical guidelines, and proactive advocacy. Our mission is to increase global awareness of organized trade as a powerful and sustainable business tool. By uniting industry professionals, fostering responsible commerce, and supporting legislative efforts, we aim to drive growth, enhance professionalism, and ensure the long-term success of the sector.
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Our Purpose

The International Reciprocal Trade Association, (IRTA), is a non-profit organization committed to providing best practices, ethical guidelines, proactive advocacy and certification designations to the international organized trade industry and IRTA members.

Our Mission

To increase international awareness, to the general public and trade industry participants, of the benefits of organized trade as an effective business tool to increase businesses’ sales, revenue and market share.

IRTA Proactive Pursuits

  • Uniting the global organized trade participants with a universal structure of standards, regulations and a Code of Ethics and peer review process.
  • Promoting organized trade as a responsible form of commerce to the public, media and government agencies.
  • Providing legislative advocacy and political action worldwide. Sharing best practices of organized trade to enhance the growth and profitability of industry members.
  • Raising professional standards by education and training and awarding credentials solely based on professional knowledge experience and achievements.
  • Leading the organized trade industry into the future, by anticipating changes in laws and governmental regulations that affect the industry.
  • Encouraging the worldwide expansion of the organized trade industry through mutual support and the free exchange of ideas and information among industry members.

IRTA, www.irta.com, was founded on August 31, 1979 to foster the common interests of the organized trade industry in the United States and worldwide, and to uphold high standards of ethical business practice. IRTA works with all sectors of the barter industry to preserve, protect and enhance the industry. IRTA also interfaces with governmental agencies, the media and the public to promote the numerous benefits of organized trade systems as an important component for economic development. IRTA conducts research into contracts, securities and tax laws and accounting principles applicable to the retail barter, corporate barter, and counter trade organizations.

Through its subsidiary, UC, IRTA provides the most robust and successful global inter-exchange trading platform in the world. UC was created in 1997 and continues to set trading records on a regular basis.

UC Application

IRTA also provides a consumer protection program via its Ethics Complaint and resolution process, which is available to both IRTA members and non-IRTA members alike.

IRTA was responsible for the passage in 1982 in the U.S. of provisions in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) which established barter exchanges on an equal footing with banks, savings institutions and credit card companies as third-party record keepers of financial transactions of taxpayers. The law imposed a requirement upon barter exchanges to submit information returns (1099B Forms) to the IRS for the annual barter sales made by their clients. IRTA retains a close relationship with the IRS to assure any potential new legislation is favorable to the barter industry and to assure the highest level of barter industry compliance with TEFRA.

As of 2024, IRTA has over 80 members in the commercial organized trade industry. Members of IRTA are from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, China, Singapore, New Zealand, Italy, France, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Puerto, Thailand, the UK and Sardinia. Membership is open to any individual or firm who subscribes to the aims of IRTA and who has not been convicted of a serious criminal offense or was the subject of a civil judgment involving fraud. International trading firms, trade exchanges, corporate barter companies, counter-trade organizations, and governmental agencies or banks who have a keen interest in the barter industry, are all welcome to apply for membership in IRTA.

IRTA is governed by an 11-person Global Board of Directors which meets regularly to review IRTA’s progress and set new goals. An Annual Meeting of IRTA is held each year at the annual virtual or in-person at the annual convention. The conventions include two to three days of speakers and seminars aimed at educating and increasing the competency of those serving the organized trade sector. See the “News” tab of our website and sub-tab “Convention News” for more information.

In an effort to continue to provide quality barter industry education, IRTA also offers the Certified Trade Broker (CTB) training and accreditation program online at www.irtaeducation.com. IRTA also created the Certified Trade Executive (CTE) designation in July of 2019 for exchange owners and managers. The CTE course materials and exam are all online as well at www.irtaeducation.com.

IRTA regularly sends out digital News Flashes and Advisory Memos to the organized trade industry on important topical matters that are of concern to the industry. Recent Advisory Memos covered Management of Exchange Deficits, Franchise and Licensing Requirements, PCI Compliance. IRTA also maintains an active social media program in an ongoing effort to increase awareness of the benefits of organized trade both for IRTA members and the public at large.

IRTA is currently working with States in the U.S. that are looking at revising their financial regulations in response to the growth of crypto-currencies in the U.S. and worldwide, (see the Crypto-Currency section under the IRTA Library tab on this website). IRTA is pro-active with these jurisdictions so as to protect the barter industry against the adoption of any new statutory language that could potentially adversely affect the trade industry.

On February 7th, 2017 IRTA released an important new Advisory Memo titled, “Proper Reporting of Assets and Liabilities of the Managing Exchange vs. The Exchange Members & IRS Reporting Requirements Regarding Client/Member Bad Debt Accounts.” The Advisory Memo’s conclusions are supported by the Chicago, Illinois accounting firm of Manning Silverman & Company.

IRTA provides professional consulting services regarding all topics related to the barter industry. Most notedly, in December of 2015, IRTA submitted research reports were prepared the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the development arm of the Islamic Development Bank, IDB) and the Department of Economic Development (DED) of the Government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

For more information on IRTA, contact IRTA’s President & CEO, Ron Whitney at ron@irta.com or 757-393-2292.

The Barter and Trade Industry

The organized trade industry includes three major sectors; traditional retail barter exchange companies, (also referred to as mutual peer-to-peer credit clearing systems), corporate barter companies, (who perform larger corporate barter transactions) and countertrade, (usually between sovereign governments and focused on import & export of commercial products.

The total annual volume of transactions in all sectors are difficult to determine since most barter companies are privately-held and do not report their transactional volume. However, IRTA estimates the annual volume to be in the 12-14 billion dollar range, with the caveat that the amount could vary widely, based on the amount of countertrade activity that occurs annually.

IRTA further estimates the activity per sector, as per the pie chart below. Countertrade is estimated at 50%, corporate barter at 30% and retail barter at 20%.

Barter Industry By Sector - IRTA

The key to the growth of the barter industry in the last forty-two years results from the shift from one-on-one trading to third-party trading and the subsequent development of sophisticated internet-based software to maximize trading opportunities while also providing quality accounting and reporting functionality.

Due to global financial instability, many governments have recognized the economic benefit of increased commerce that barter systems provide. And most governments have followed the U.S. model and accepted barter transactions as a viable alternative form of commerce and therefore consider barter transactions as a taxable event (see the U.S.’s TEFRA legislation of 1982).

Lastly, the fundamental benefit that attracts businesses to a barter retail model is the principle of maximizing/utilizing ones unused capacity, be it unused time or unused inventory. Barter solutions are predicated on the goal of increasing revenues of its participants without displacing their existing cash business.

Robin Maini — Chairman of the Board
Membership Committee

The Membership Committee works with the Executive Director to assist in identifying and contacting prospective and viable trade exchanges and non-industry companies regarding membership in IRTA. The Membership committee reviews all new member applications and votes to accept or deny all new membership applications.

Members: Annette Riggs, Scott Whitmer, M. Sirri Simsek, Mary Ellen Rosinski, and Valerie Hale

The Ethics Committee reviews all formal ethics complaints that are filed and makes equitable and enforceable decisions based on the facts.

Members: Annette Riggs (Chairman), Ron Whitney, Robin Maini

The UC Committee is the day-to-day governing body for UC. It meets regularly to approve new UC memberships, regulate credit lines, oversee collection efforts and set overall rules and regulations of UC.

Members: Scott Whitmer (Chairman), Kim Strabley, Ron Whitney (UC Administrator/UC CEO), Patty Weston (UC Broker), Kiran Benson, Mary Ellen Rosinski, (UC Treasurer) and Chris Haddawy

This committee was formed in the Fall of 2015 for the purpose of monitoring crypto-currency regulations and to intercede when necessary with State or Federal agencies to protect the barter industry from potential onerous new regulations that could damage the barter industry. The committee meets regularly to monitor cryptocurrency & blockchain developments that may impact the barter industry.

Members: Annette Riggs, Mary Ellen Rosinski, Caroline Macdonald, Debbie Lombardi and Ron Whitney

This committee makes recommendations to the Global Board for candidates to fill board seat vacancies at IRTA’s annual convention.

Members: Annette Riggs,Mary Ellen Rosinski & Kent Johnson

This committee formed in November 2012. The committee oversees IRTA’s educational programs.

Members: Kim Strabley (Chairman), Mary Ellen Rosinski, Annette Riggs & Ron Whitney

This committee reviews the current IRTA bylaws and makes periodic change recommendations to the global board.

Members: Annette Riggs, Robin Maini Mary Ellen Rosinski, Scott Whitmer, Dale Mardak, Ron Whitney and Carl Steinbrenner, Esq.

The IRTA Bylaws, March 26, 2019 Version, Article VI, Section 2a) states: “The Executive Committee shall have the power and authority to act for and on behalf of the Board of Directors in its place and stead and shall report its actions at the next meeting of the Board thereafter.” IRTA’s Executive Committee members are the officers of IRTA. As of September 10, 2022 the IRTA Executive Committee.

Members: Robin Maini, Chairman of the Board, Ron Whitney, President & CEO, Caroline Macdonald, Vice Chairwoman of the Board, Mary Ellen Rosinski, Treasurer, and Maria Wirth, Secretary

The U.S.’s formal recognition of the organized trade industry, via the passage of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) of 1982, is still considered the global model for tax reporting of barter exchange transactions. IRTA was instrumental in getting the barter provisions of TEFRA passed back in 1982. Click HERE to read the actual sections of TEFRA that pertain to barter exchanges.

TEFRA was important because it classified barter exchanges as 3rd party record keepers and mandated that barter exchanges report all member barter sales to the IRS and send 1099B reports to each barter member that conducted barter sales.

TEFRA allowed the U.S. government to effectively tax barter transactions made through barter exchange systems – it legalized the organized trade industry in the U.S.

TEFRA recognized barter credits as a form of generalized purchasing power, a “medium of exchange” among the members of the organized trade system.

In 2009 IRTA helped the IRS write the current www.irs.gov website sections that are related to 1099B reporting requirements (see the 6th link below regarding the IRS 2009 IRPAC Report). The key IRS barter sections are:

Bartering Tax Center (which includes a link to IRTA’s website)
Topic 420 – Bartering Income
Four Things You Should Know if You Barter
Form 1099-B, Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions
National Society of Accountants Memo on Barter Reporting Requirements
IRS 2009 Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC) Report on Barter Exchange Education, Back-Up Withholding and “B” Notice Requirements

Internal Revenue Service

IRTA & IRS — IRTA’s strategic partnership with the IRS Partnership Outreach is a collaborative effort to work with a major government group to educate business owners on reciprocal trade.

Universal Clearinghouse Inc.

IRTA & UC — IRTA’s Universal Currency is a strategic effort within IRTA to foster trade among members to expand reciprocal trade across regions and countries.

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