Stamp Duty Reserve Tax (SDRT) for options trading in the UK?

Discussion in 'Options' started by bermondsey, Jun 14, 2020.

  1. Do you have to pay tax at 0.5% on trading options in the UK, and if yes, would that tax be on the strike price or the value of the option itself? Would the broker deduct this automatically just like they do for shares?

    https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-taxes-shares-manual/stsm031120
    https://www.ig.com/uk/investments/s...-and-sdrt--stamp-duty-reserve-tax--definition

    The options I have traded so far are for QQQ, XLV and SPY on IB, none which I suppose are in a UK share register. So, does the stamp duty apply at all for these?

    In a hypothetical scenario of trading a far OOM option contract for Amazon trading at 2500$, would this mean one has to pay a tax of 12.5*100=$1250 for selling a nearly worthless option?
     
  2. Okay, correction: I should have said an OOM Amzn call contract at a strike price of say, 4000$ (while amazon itself trades at 2500$) in which case the tax could be 100*4000*0.5%= 2000$.

    The HMRC document above looks intended to address the case of employee/shareholder stock options, however, I assume they are equivalent to Call options with a very low nominal strike price.

    My concern is whether or not the document could technically apply to options in general, though I don't know how it can apply to a Put option.
     
  3. ZBZB

    ZBZB

    Stamp duty is only on U.K. shares. If you sell puts and are delivered on U.K. shares then you have to pay stamp.
     
    bermondsey likes this.