sandptrader 

Obamacare: Individual Mandate & Net Investment Income Tax | GreenTraderTax

+1 for GreenTraderTax.
I'm a very happy client.
Their knowledge of trading related tax matters is excellent (and their specialty).

3 Tax Changes for 2015 You Need To Know About

Hi, does anyone know how futures trading is taxed in Australia? Would be great if we had something like the 60/40 cgt/income tax split in the US but not holding my breath.

Can someone please inform me as to the Percent I need to hold out on all made profits in trading the following.... Forex, Stocks,Futures and Options

Does it matter what you trade , as to the percent of taxes you need to withhold for each individual instrument/market or are all instruments/markets taxed the same, and the percent you need to hold out for taxes , comes down to your individual income ?

Are the Taxes calculated as the following ( as an Example ):
Forex = 15%
Options= 20%
Stocks = 25%
Futures = 30%

OR

is it a Set 15%, 20%, 25% taxed on all your profits from trading, no matter what you trade ?

Thanks for the help, just want to make sure I have withheld enough

Equities & Equity Options held for less than 1 year = Short Term Capital Gains = Your Individual Tax Rate (0% to 39.6%)
Equities & Equity Options held longer than 1 year = Long Term Capital Gains = 0% to 20% depending on your Tax Bracket

Most Futures & Futures Option contracts are taxed as Section 1256 Contracts which means that they are taxed 60% at your long term capital gains rates and 40% at you short term capital gains rate no matter what the holding period.
Hence in the highest tax bracket your Section 1256 tax rate is 60% @ 20% + 40% @ 39.6% = 27.84% (prior to the recent tax increases this was only 23%).

Forex I don't know. A quick google search implies that it can be taxed either way depending upon your situation.

On top of this you will also owe 3.8% Net Investment Tax if your AGI is over $200k single/$250k married.

If you own or lease an exchange membership your trading earnings may also be subject to Self Employment Tax's.

Disclaimer. I'm not an accountant, I'm a trader, hence this is only my understanding and while I believe it to be accurate it may be incorrect.

LightWeight 

Hey everyone, it's getting to tax time so I had a few questions if anyone might know: This was my first year trading (futures only), and I obviously had expenses -- new computer and monitors, lifetime Ninja license, software, etc. Am I able to deduct all those as an individual trader, with no business license or anything? Also, do I need to get a CPA, or because I only traded futures (and only have 1099's from two brokers), would it be easy enough to do them on my own? I also have a day job, which is also 1099. It SEEMS like it all shouldn't be that complicated, but having not been through this before I'm not sure if that's accurate or not, especially if I'm looking to deduct things.

Good evening LightWeight,

Your post is an exact depiction of the situation that i currently face, but unfortunately i saw that no one replied to your post. So i was wondering if you've figured it out, and if so could you provide me with any guidance and references to the personnel or company you used.

Thank you much.

Corpben 

Good evening LightWeight, Your post is an exact depiction of the situation that i currently face, but unfortunately i saw that no one replied to your post. So i was wondering if you've figured it out, and if so could you provide me with any guidance and references to the personnel or company you used. Thank you much.

I believe that to deduct costs like that you will need to qualify for trader tax status.

As always Green Trader Tax/Green & Company are an amazing resource for information like this.
Founder & CEO Robert Green is a nationally quoted expert who appears in Forbes, Futures Magazine and other major publications.
They are my accountant and they do a great job.

LINK: Green Trader Tax - Trader Tax Status

To quote them...

Trader Tax Status: How to Qualify
It's not easy to qualify for trader tax status. Learn our golden rules based on trader tax court cases.

Currently, there’s no statutory law with objective tests for how to qualify for trader tax status (TTS). Subjective case-law applies. Leading tax publishers have interpreted case-law to show a two-part test to qualify for TTS:

Taxpayers’ trading activity must be substantial, regular, frequent and continuous.
The taxpayer must seek to catch the swings in the daily market movements and profit from these short-term changes rather than profiting from long-term holding of investments.

There's more info on their site.

Disclaimer. I'm not an accountant, I'm a trader, hence this is only my understanding and while I believe it to be accurate it may be incorrect.

SMCJB 

I believe that to deduct costs like that you will need to qualify for trader tax status. As always Green Trader Tax/Green & Company are an amazing resource for information like this. Founder & CEO Robert Green is a nationally quoted expert who appears in Forbes, Futures Magazine and other major publications. They are my accountant and they do a great job. LINK: Green Trader Tax - Trader Tax Status To quote them... Trader Tax Status: How to Qualify It's not easy to qualify for trader tax status. Learn our golden rules based on trader tax court cases. Currently, there’s no statutory law with objective tests for how to qualify for trader tax status (TTS). Subjective case-law applies. Leading tax publishers have interpreted case-law to show a two-part test to qualify for TTS: Taxpayers’ trading activity must be substantial, regular, frequent and continuous. The taxpayer must seek to catch the swings in the daily market movements and profit from these short-term changes rather than profiting from long-term holding of investments. There's more info on their site. Disclaimer. I'm not an accountant, I'm a trader, hence this is only my understanding and while I believe it to be accurate it may be incorrect.

Thank you

Thank you for the GreenTraderTax link

As far as the Percentage of Gains from trading ( Stocks, Forex, Options ) , combining all profits and from all instruments traded,
If you made say $10,000 for the year 2014 , would holding 20% ( $2,000 ) be enough to cover your Capital gains tax , or is it more in the 25 - 30% percent range ?

I know about the 60/40 rule, I'm just trying to make sure I apply it correctly, and hold out extra for taxes from here on out , as to not have it come back to bite me Tax time of this year.

Thanks for the help