Is it too late to qualify for 60/40 taxes??

Will than the capital gains be taxed at 60/40?

I'm afraid that even with the form they may still not tax me correctly. Hopefully , the turbotax they use will pick it up ..

Thanks for the information.. I appreciate your time for the insight..
I'm heading to the CPA office tomorrow morning and will bring this up.

 

Your CPA uses TurboTax? Does he work out of some one's basement too?

 

I actually have no idea.. I just see them punch in numbers into a program ..

 

Well, I passed information to my CPA about the form 6781.
He said that since all my futures contract positions were closed out before year end that I can't use the form.

Only way is if I carried an open position over to the new year. He checked with his association that he belongs to as well ..

I guess I had a wrong understanding of the 60/40 tax treatment. I thought that my capital gains from my futures trading would recieve the treatment, I didn't know it doesn't affect me if all my positions were closed before year end ...

 

Wow, your cpa is an IDIOT!

Look at this from the instructions for 6781 on IRS website:

Purpose of Form
Use Form 6781 to report:
• Any gain or loss on section 1256
contracts under the mark-to-market
rules, and
• Gains and losses under section 1092
from straddle positions.
For details on section 1256 contracts
and straddles, see Pub. 550, Investment
Income and Expenses.
Section 1256 Contract
A section 1256 contract is any:
• Regulated futures contract,
• Foreign currency contract,
• Nonequity option,
• Dealer equity option, or
• Dealer securities futures contract.

You can clearly see that 6781 is used to report "any" trade on a section 1256 contract, and that a 1256 contract includes "any regulated futures contract".

Taxes aren't that hard to figure out if you just read the instructions. Fun, no. Hard, not really.

 

its rare that future contracts NOT closed out by year end, I bet your CPA has no clue of what you are filing.

 

Dude, Get a new CPA or do your taxes yourself. That is free advice that is actually worth something.

 

I need to educate myself more..
My CPA may not know, but either do I..

I just contacted a firm that specializes in futures trading..
If I can get the 60/40 treatmeant on my futures trades, I hope I have enough time..

 

If all you ever do is trade futures then you should be smart enough to do your own taxes. Taxes on futures trades are the easiest out there. If you aren't smart enough to do them yourself then quit trading because you aren't smart enough to make money.

Your CPA is not only not qualified to do your trading taxes but I would question whether he is qualified to be doing taxes at all. If you don't break ties with him then you aren't very smart.

 

Oh come on. No need to belittle someone just because he askes a question.


cml2949: You said: "If I can get the 60/40 treatmeant on my futures trades, I hope I have enough time.. "

Why "if"? What would be the reason that you won't have a 60/40? From what I understand: futures are always marked-to-market. Which means even if you hold a position on Dec 31, 2010, the gain/loss is marked to the market value as of the close of session.

Quote from the linked article:

http://www.traderstatus.com/futures.htm#treatment