Constructive Receipt

You're gonna get taxed on the payments you recieved. (Hence, the term "receipt" in there.) If the payment was made via bank wire into your B of A account, and there is a clear record of you having received it on November 17th, then it wasn't constructive, it was a real receipt. That is, you didn't have to do any gymnastics to prove or disprove that you got the money. It was just...there.

However, sometimes money is paid in escrow form. Like...it's around, but hasn't electronically hit the bank numbers properly, so it's kind of "in transit" and not yet set, i.e. it's unclear as to whether or not that receipt of cashola from your hard month's labors really came to you...and was then taxable.