Editing Wages as taxable income (section)

== The exchange argument ==
A worker spends time, effort, and skill to earn a paycheck. A promoter may say the worker's labor had the same value as the wages received, so nothing was gained and the entire payment has a "basis" that cancels it out. This resembles a familiar idea in taxation: when property with a cost basis is sold, the full sale proceeds are not necessarily taxable gain. It is reasonable to ask how the tax law treats the value a person gives up in return for pay.

The argument becomes a legal claim when it applies a property-sale basis concept to a person's own services and concludes that wages as a class cannot be included in income. That conclusion has to be tested against the actual income definition.