How do wash sales work for investing after daytrading it?

sprstpd said:
If the wash sale rule didn't exist, you could sell all your losers at year end and then immediately buy them back in order to defer taxes. The IRS wants their fair share.
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Yes, but the losses get added to the cost basis of later purchases, thereby reducing the taxable gain on those (equal to the disallowed wash sale losses). Bottom line, maybe shift a bit of tax from one year to the next, but overall no net financial impact.
 
dtryan said:
My question was would I be disqualified from mtm if I daytrade 200 times a day while mixing it up with long term holds in the same account? Would I lose mtm status if I held an investment for more than 31 days and for over a year? Or would my active daytrades lower the 31 day average security holding period so I can still qualify for mtm?
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It is a gray area, but if you mix and match like this, the IRS might try to categorize your trading in the way that makes it most profitable for them. To be safe, you should segregate your investments from your trading by using different accounts. Even then, if you are trading the same securities, the IRS could potentially claim wash sales between a MTM trading account and an investment account. To be extra safe, you shouldn't trade securities that you hold for long-term investment. After reading the regulations, I'm not convinced that it is necessary, but Green Trader Tax recommends this strategy and I wouldn't be surprised if the IRS tries to use any tactic possible to get as much money as possible.
 
Scataphagos said:
Yes, but the losses get added to the cost basis of later purchases, thereby reducing the taxable gain on those (equal to the disallowed wash sale losses). Bottom line, maybe shift a bit of tax from one year to the next, but overall no net financial impact.
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You are correct, but you might not sell those shares the next year or the year after that so the gain could be deferred indefinitely. The IRS wants its money now!
 
Scataphagos said:
Agree. I see wash sales as a moronic, no value, time waster.... should be abolished.

I'd love to see the explanation as to why wash sales are still on the book.
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Exactly what is the reason and why 30 days? I'm not going to lie I lost how out on taking losses because of buying the same stock back within 30 days. You know everyone has a stock they love to trade and I'm sure they have gotten caught up in wash sales because of that.
 
S2007S said:
Exactly what is the reason and why 30 days? I'm not going to lie I lost how out on taking losses because of buying the same stock back within 30 days. You know everyone has a stock they love to trade and I'm sure they have gotten caught up in wash sales because of that.
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You didn't probably didn't really lose it. Even if you entered every trade by hand, the IRS likely catches all of that and makes the appropriate adjustment for you. Same if your tax preparer (like TurboTax) downloads the info from your broker.
 
sprstpd said:
It is a gray area, but if you mix and match like this, the IRS might try to categorize your trading in the way that makes it most profitable for them. To be safe, you should segregate your investments from your trading by using different accounts. Even then, if you are trading the same securities, the IRS could potentially claim wash sales between a MTM trading account and an investment account. To be extra safe, you shouldn't trade securities that you hold for long-term investment. After reading the regulations, I'm not convinced that it is necessary, but Green Trader Tax recommends this strategy and I wouldn't be surprised if the IRS tries to use any tactic possible to get as much money as possible.
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Ah, so it would be hard to do both in the same account then?
 
wash trading rule is 30 days or 60 days depending on the country
its so people don't claim superficial 'losses' when they still have the position. it's not a loss til you close the position.
 
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