Quote from GreenTraderTax:
I appreciate Don Bright's point and perspective. He is a wise man in my opinion.
However Don, "working together" is not a requirement for a husband wife general partnership (tax benefit). It is merely one of the factors you can use. If you wish to include this factor (the spouse is "active" rather then "passive" in your HW partnership), then consider that you don't have to include your spouse on your trading decisions and process. Delegating some bookkeeping and general research will do.
The media has reported that during the bear market many married couples blamed each other on their respective or joint brokerage account losses. So I agree with Don, prudence is needed here.
Many traders have husband & wife trading partnership factors in place without even realizing it. The IRS could force you to deal with some of them and not understanding the rules can lead to trouble. Get ahead of the curve, learn the rules and use them to reduce your tax bills.
Prop traders can not join a prop trading firm as a husband wife general partnership; that is one limitation. I can look into the idea of a HW general partnership reporting one spouses K-1 received from a prop trading firm. No promises on that yet.
Robert Green, CPA
GreenTraderTax.com