> If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that

What if you're getting paid in landscaping?

On a corporate level it doesn't really matter as you're only taxed on your profits/losses. If we do a service swap ultimately it's just adding a revenue item with a matching loss, and these are infact quantified.

As an individual interestingly it does matter because services received for free are considered taxable income (but businesses are not taxed on their income).