Originally posted in another thread by profitseer
I must say, this has been one of the most depressing threads ever started on this site. The IRS has no concept of trading capital. Try to explain to them that just because I had a good quarter, I may need some of that for my next drawdown.
I still can't get a straight answer on this. I have never signed an MTM form, but the answer I keep getting is all futures are marked to market and there is no choice.
The biggest mistake I have ever made in trading is not understanding tax laws.
It just seems like understanding them totally takes me out of my groove, so I just keep ignoring them. And there is no such thing as simplifying taxes.
Sometime I'll tell you about the time I hired a high school student to do my schedule D. (Well, the accountant at the time was charging me $95 per hour, and he was writing down every trade. I said, "Your making more money just writing down the trades than I made making them!") Later I found out you don't have to write down every trade.