I'm unemployed but trading my own account full time (stocks, options) this year with a nice low 6 figure realized gain. If I want to make this my full time "employment" so I get social security work credit for my retirement, how should I file my 2017 tax? Can I do 1040SE and report all the trades on Schedule D? Thanks!
Before proceeding, note that I am not a tax professional. In order to be eligible for trader tax status, you need to demonstrate a certain level and frequency of trading activity. I believe that in order to set up an entity for a trading business, you must first qualify for trader tax status. I believe that the only way to get social security work credit is if you have set up an entity for a trading business. You can find the details of this online or ask GreenTraderTax. Another strategy might be to not create a business entity and thus not contribute to social security. If you go this route, since trading income is considered "unearned income," you do not pay social security taxes at all. If you have the discipline, you can just earmark the portion that you would have paid for social security as retirement savings and put it into a retirement investment account. Much simpler and you do not have to worry what is going to happen to the social security program in the future. One of the big perks of getting trader tax status is that you can write off business expenses. If you have a lot of business expenses, then I would urge you to pursue this (assuming you meet the trader tax qualifications). Otherwise, it is probably simpler to ignore all the extra complexity and just create your own savings/retirement program.
This is similar in other countries too. Yet, gotta be careful if the person is the type that's not good at putting profits into savings/retirement program even if they know it will lower their tax burden and ensure something is there for them at the end of the road (retirement, pension, disability and such). I'm taxed here in Canada and France (expat). I've set up automatic payments (quarterly) because I'm one of those people not good at setting up a retirement on my own.