Mark to Market election same for futures traders??

Dominic · Mar 16, 2009

I took the Mark to Market election back in 2000; been trading equities fulltime since then; have decided to trade only futures this year and curious if anyone knows if the election also applies to futures traders or just equities traders?

Thanks

Dominic

gnome · Mar 16, 2009

Futures are MTM already... every day... settled same day, too.

St.ignorant · Mar 16, 2009

I guess it depends on whether you specified securities only or not. find a CPA for consultation

Dominic · Mar 16, 2009

Are you able to do mark to market on equities and futures at the same time??

Thanks

rolextrader · Mar 16, 2009

sn0wblind · Apr 4, 2009

As a follow-up question, as I am in a similar situation from moving to futures from equities..
If I previously specified only 'securities' on my election, can I still obtain the futures tax benefit? Or is my only option to go through the revoke procedure?

Thanks.

nkhoi · Apr 4, 2009

there is no revoke procedure.

Quote from sn0wblind:

As a follow-up question, as I am in a similar situation from moving to futures from equities..
If I previously specified only 'securities' on my election, can I still obtain the futures tax benefit? Or is my only option to go through the revoke procedure?

Thanks.

sn0wblind · Apr 4, 2009

Quote from nkhoi:

there is no revoke procedure.

I apologize...'request for permission for the irs to revoke..'

piezoe · Apr 4, 2009

I am under the impression that to treat equities as mark to market (futures have that status automatically) you had to get trader status approved by the IRS. Is that correct? And if so, then i would think your mark to market status for equities might be lost if you traded mostly futures from here on out and failed to show the pattern of regular equity trading needed for trader status. Does anyone know if once you get mark to market for equities, if you can retain that status if you later cut back substantially on your equity trading activities? Curiously, in the past, i have had difficulty getting to the correct person in the IRS who could give me the correct answer on various tax issues. I've even had them give me answers that turned out to be incorrect by mail! Wouldn't it be nice if the US could simplify the tax code! What a nightmare it has morphed into.