I have to file a US and Canadian return for '03 and am looking for a tax guy experienced in dealing with such a situation.
At this website here: http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it346r/it346r-e.html It says that speculators can treat transactions in commodity futures as capital gains or losses. It says that the gains would be taxable at 50% but then I believe our tax rate on capital gains is now 25%. This web page dates from 1995. I couldn't find a newer web page that says something about 25% capital gains for commodity trading. It also says you have to be consistent in how you report the gains or losses. I know I would have a small loss this year, which would be to my advantage to report it as a fully taxable loss to get a 100% deduction. But then if I finally become profitable this year, I would have to report that income at 100% from what I interpret of the rules. I'll take the smaller capital loss for my income this year. I've talked to several accountants about how to treat short term trading income. As far as I can gather this is a gray area with Canadian tax laws. My perception was that if you are not trading full time it would be a lot easier to report any income as capital gains. I have money in a hedge fund and I'm not sure how I will report that income/loss. I'd like to be able to report it as capital gains for the lower tax rate. Does anyone know anything about this?
Just for your info look at these two sites. It gives tax treatment for securities and futures. But I am still looking for some tax advisors. Anybody? http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it346r/it346r-e.html http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it479r/it479r-e.html
I'm in the top tax braket, and plugged my income into WinTax for a rough estimate of what I'll owe. Before any retirement plan contributions, my effective rate came out to about 35% of what I made. I'm a full time professional trader and claim everything as ordinary income, taxed at the full rate.