tax for futures traders

I usually don’t bother with putting people on ignore, but you are right up there. I honestly don’t have any idea why you post on this site, you need to get a life. Every actual trader here knows that most CPAs don’t know anything about taxes for traders because there are so few of us. Have you ever posted anything of value here?

 

go figure why i put those links. If u cant, put me on your ignore list.

 

Clearly emg is too stupid to understand anything, but for anyone else reading you need to understand that being a CPA is like being a medical doctor. Just because you are a family doctor doesn’t mean you can perform brain surgery. Many here have talked to a lot of CPAs and most all of them did not specialize in taxes for traders. There are very few professional traders out there so it makes no economic sense for any but a handful of CPAs to know anything about it. Additionally there are no hard rules, because the IRS has been intentionally vague, and the change to allow deductions of expenses by traders has not been around long enough for every aspect to be tested in court yet.

 

Filing Taxes on Commodities Trading

http://commodities.about.com/od/taxissues/a/commodity_taxes.htm

 

I have been helped greatly a few times just by talking to people at the IRS. If you are nice to them they'll be nice to you. For an estate liquidation issue I had one time the guy even emailed the couple of blurbs of info and instructions I needed along with the necessary forms. They even give you their id number so if a problem should ever arise the same person that helped you can back you up. They aren't out to get you unless you are doing something shady.

Unless you own multiple business or have assets all over the world it should take you way less then an hour to do you taxes.

 

Futures are section 1256 contracts with lower 60/40 tax rates by default, whether you are an investor or business trader. You get the 60% long-term capital gains benefit even on scalp day trades. The blended top 60/40 rate is 23%, which is 12% lower - almost 1/3 off- the top ordinary rate of 35%.

It pays off tax wise to trade futures. They include indexes, options on futures and indexes and most ETF options too

 

Best answer so far. And why? He is a licensed CPA


When there is a tax question, always ask a CPA or certified tax consultant. They are familiar with the tax law

 

Here is an old article:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/february99/daytraders3.html

 

You can start a company in HK or one of the islands for ~1k USD and you can trade tax free.

 

Not if you are an American.