Claim and Defend Your Trader Status. Just because you call yourself a securities trader doesn’t make you one in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service. In fact, Uncle Sam is predisposed to consider you merely an investor, and thus deny you more favorable tax status, unless you meet a number of tests that are frustratingly open to interpretation.

That’s right: the tax code contains no actual definition of trader status. Instead, the IRS has issued guidelines that the courts have further delineated by case law, most of which denied taxpayer appeals. What we’re left with is a blurred image, like a photograph of a trader taken from a speeding car.

According to the IRS, to qualify as a trader:

• You must seek to profit from daily market movements in the prices of securities and not from dividends, interest or capital appreciation;
• Your activity must be substantial, and
• You must carry on the activity with continuity and regularity.

To help determine if you meet these three tests, the IRS considers these qualifiers:

• Typical holding periods for securities bought and sold;
• Frequency and dollar amount of trades during the year;
• Extent to which you pursue trading to produce income for a livelihood, and
• Amount of time you devote to the activity.

Swoosh, right? What is “substantial” activity? “Continuity and regularity?” And what’s an acceptable holding period? Is a week too long? A month?
We know who investors are: They’re our hardworking neighbors who buy securities and hold them for such long-term goals as a college fund or retirement.

Traders, on the other hand, buy and sell securities solely to take advantage of short-term market changes. Your profits come from price swings, not dividends and interests. Since your holding period is brief, often a day at most (hence the term “day trader”), there’s no need to perform due diligence on the companies you trade.

Who cares how the IRS classifies you? You do! Investors are subject to the 2% threshold for deductible investment expenses ........ Read More

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