Ok, I know there's a few traders here in the same situation as myself. We trade from home as sole employees trading both stocks and e-mini futures (and possibly open-outcry futures/options). Stocks and futures are treated differently for tax purposes. We know that MTM election should be made for stocks but not for futures due to the differeing tax consequences. My question to you other traders is how are you setting up your tax returns to reflect these two different trading "businesses"? Are you filing 2 businesses under 1 individual with 2 schedules C's and 2 schedule D's? Have you put in your letter to the IRS to elect MTM just for your stocks business, but not the futures business? Looking for advice and ideas from anyone else. Thanks in advance.
I'm only doing one Sch C since the Sch C only shows expenses and they really can't be broken out to reflect stock:future ratio. The income is shown on D anyway. They are 2 separate businesses but doing 2 Sch c's is pointless. Not sure if this is correct but it makes sense to me and there is no change in the amount of money the IRS will get so they should not care. Doing one Sch D since the future gains go on a different line as stock gains. I have not elected MTM for stocks.