Futures and year end tax reporting

Quote from nasdaqmadness:



Thanks market_man76 ...2002 was my first year trading futures and this is new to me. This trader tax thing sure adds adds to what is already a mess every April. Or October if you put it off like me. I spend more time screwing with my year end trading crap than I spend on my other accounting. But I usually wait until the year end to download my trades. I need to start doing this every month. Thanks all for any other advice in this area. Nas
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US exchange traded futures are 1256 but if you traded on Eurex or other foreign exchanges as Lobster asked about, they may not be 1256 contracts. I don't trade these so I don't know the answer for reporting foreign contracts.
 
The Tradekeeper software gives me my total futures P&L so that should work great. I guess I need to report my SSF trades along with my stock and option trades. I think trading only ES, YM and NQ would sure make my year end trade reporting alot easier. I noticed another freelance program on the IB site that runs along side TWS and it records every trade right from TWS, It can then be used for all kinds of reports etc. I need to check that one out :)
 
I finally got it all figured out today. I decided to spring for the commodities sample tax returns kit from the Green Trader Tax site and brought those in to my CPA to make sure we had it all straight. I sure see the simplicity if all I traded was futures. LOL It would cut my total return by about 20 pages. All those stock and option trades really add up. The nice thing is that I will be a bit more experienced when it's time to do my 2003 returns. This just keeps getting worse every year. I guess as long as I don't start trading stuff like Earth quake, hurricane or snake piss futures I should be ok. :)
 
Snake Piss Futures are reported on another schedule!
Just make a profit.......and let The CPA deal with it!

$$$$$$$$


:)
 
this is all very comforting. i only trade the popular minis, does this mean i do NOT need to be archiving my IB daily statements? (because i haven't been)
 
As long as you trust your IB 1099 statement at the end of the year you can use that figure but you should still keep a log of all trades in case you get audited. The Brokers archive the data for a couple of years usually but it is good practice to keep good records even if you only download them on an annual basis. But you are right about the futures trades (ES, NQ, YM, ER etc.) being really easy for tax purposes. Those worthless SSFs will still be a mess.
 
Quote from Ebo:

Snake Piss Futures are reported on another schedule!
Just make a profit.......and let The CPA deal with it!

$$$$$$$$


:)
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I think the IRS is talking about moving the snake venom futures over to the section 1256 type so I can start trading those in 04 :cool:
 
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