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Regarding information on filing for trader status --
www.thestreet.com did an in depth overview of how to
file, how to fill out the appropriate scheduled, what
is and is not deductible, etc.
Their site is subscription but, you can sign up for a
free 30 day trial. Look for the tax column in their
archive section. From there you should see the series
of articles on how to file with Trader Status.
www.greencompany.com sent 50 pages of previous tax
law case studies and then wanted to charge me $25 for
the info. The $25 wasn't such a big deal, it was the
fact that the information was just tax case law -- no
guidance on how to actually file and how to fill out
forms.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Levent Erbora
> Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 1999 2:48 AM
> To: RealTraders Discussion Group
> Subject: RE: Wash Sale Rules
>
>
> Wash sale rule should not affect the final tax bill of a short
> term trader/daytrader. Although you can not claim the initial
> loss from a stock that you have repurchased within 30 days, when
> you finally sell the repurchased stock, your cost basis for the
> final trade will be the cost of the repurchased stock PLUS the
> loss from the initial/previous trades, so in the end, your
> overall profit or loss is still the same. This is true ofcourse,
> assuming that all the trades for that particular stock are short
> term trades, i.e. held less than 12 months. If you hold the
> repurchased stock more than 12 months so that it becomes a "Long
> Term" gain or loss, then it is a different story. Actually, wash
> sale rule is intended for and affects only the "Long Term"
> gain/loss situations.
>
> The only problem wash sale rule causes the short
> term/frequent/daytrader is the next-to- impossible burden of
> record keeping and listing on the schedule D. I have honestly
> tried to list every wash sale I had the previous year on my last
> year's schedule D, but after about 5 hours or so, totally gave up
> on it. Believe me, it IS impossible!
>
> This year, I am going to file under the new "Trader in
> Securities" status with the "mark-to-market" option. When you do
> that, wash sale rule does not apply at all. It becomes very
> similar to the way the commodity trades are reported. The catch
> is, you have to be able to qualify as a bona-fide trader under
> somewhat strict IRS guidelines. This is all very new, and it
> seems like there is a lot of misinformation out there and any
> good/reliable guidance is very hard to come by. The best
> info/resource I could find was at
>
http://www.greencompany.com/
I have not purchased any of their guides or services yet but am strongly
considering it. I would also appreciate any feedback about them or any other
source on this Trader Tax matter.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Levent Erbora
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan [SMTP:buchach@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, February 22, 1999 10:54 PM
To: RealTraders Discussion Group
Subject: Re: Wash Sale Rules
Thanks for your explanation - what this appears to me to mean is that if one
daytrades stocks, or even trades in and out every few days, one could not
simply net out all profitable trades and all losing trades at the end of the
year and pay taxes only on the net gain or loss like you can with futures-
the
short term stock trade losses would be not be able to be used if the same
stocks was repurchased within thirty days. This would greatly increase the
tax
bill - am I interpreting this correctly? Seems like this would make it
impossible tax-wise for daytraders.
Are any of you stock daytraders out there dealing with this situation?
Thanks, Dan
Richard wrote:
> >Could someone please help exactly what the IRS "wash sale" rule means,
> >and the tax impact to a stock day trader that goes in and out
> >frequently?
> >
> >Thanks in advance, Dan
>
> It means that if you want to take a loss on a stock for tax purposes, you
> cannot purchase that same security in "like and kind" for at least 30
days.
> This is to prevent people from getting a deduction without parting with
the
> stock for at least awhile.
>
> Could have impact for day trading. If you claim a loss for a transaction
> and you repurchased the stock within 30 days, that loss could be
disallowed
> under the wash sale rule. In that case, for tax purposes, your capital
gain
> or loss will be treated differently.
>
> The IRS site has details.
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