Send your taxes over to my business, family owned and operated since 1946 $300 per return, covers investment, trading, normal income, and other credits. Or just get yourself an accountant, seriously. Don't mess with uncle same, because he will AUDIT your ass :eek: (I hate taxes!)
if you have simple return, like i do(no mortgage,no fancy,creative deductions)-there is not too much to audit..i do my taxes for many years with no problem..i wish, that US some day will accept flat tax,and will put all of you out of business. accounting is a king of nonproductive activities in US..way bigger than trading.. $300 perhaps is waaaay too much for personal return,which usually cost $50 $200 for business..
In my experience, $300 is worth every penny. Unless you file a 1040EZ, I really don't understand why you would do it yourself. Tax laws change every year. It's kind of like when a rock punched a hole in the A/C condenser of my car. I could have wasted a weekend and replaced it myself (I have access to R134A and all the tools I would need), but why would I waste my time? I just payed a tech with experience to do it for me. It was done faster and with far fewer errors, therefore saving me money in the end.
one of the reasons is very simple-i don't want to show my trades to anyone. i consider this information as my intellectual property.i can provide this info to IRS directly,if they ask for it, but to accountant- no no.. second reason is opposite to your AC case. every time accounting firm file my taxes-they comeback with errors and penalties. every single time.for same reason i prefer to do maintenance on my cars by myself,even if it's my wife's newest mercedes..you go for oil change-99% of the time-they will overfill and it will lead to a numerous leaks all over the place..i use to have little nissan sentra,on which i made over 400K miles,until some idiot hit me by accident and total the car. this car never been in any repair shop and i believe that's the reason,why it last this long..
the taxman doesn't care about your individual profit and losses. the taxman only careas about short term or long term taxes. you pay long term taxes on position held over a year. you don't even have to give your account details of trades either. just the profit and losses amounts. taxman doesn't care if you don't file your taxes on a year you loss money, you can't carry-over you losses as deductions in future years if yoiu make money.
you don't have to give or show you individual portfolio trades to your accountant or even taxman. all they need is your short and long term profits amounts and bottomline for the year. i talked to taxman and taxman said that you don't even have to file for losses for the year, you would need to verify this with the taxman and call them, the taxman only audits you if you made money and owe them money.
filing for taxes on trading is same and as easy as filing for employment tax. you just need the year end statemetn from your broker showing short and long term profits/lossesa and commissions. http://taxes.about.com/od/capitalgains/a/CapitalGainsTax.htm
heh..tell this to my local tax collector for example..when we meet for first time he want's see them all..every trade.. i agree with fhl that you have no idea,what you are talking about..
you owe them money and is under audit what traders do is set up a corporation to run their business versus individual. than you trades are not individual trades but just a business transactions which the tax man has no business knowing. the only thing the taxman needs to know is proft/loss statments they receive from your broker and you.