Taxes for traders

[chacho]

Hi,
i'm young (20) and have never really had to do taxes (i've had a job but my dad says since it's so simple to do my taxes, he would do them). i'm wondering how much of a pain taxes are if you're a trader. i'm thinking of gettings started trading, but not too much(a couple hundred $). i'm just wondering how much of a hassle it is to see if i should not get involved in trading until i've read a couple books and am ready to get serious about it. any help would be appreaciated.
thanks!

[clavocat]

if you hold for over 12 months its 15%, and if its held less than 12 months you pay the percentage u pay for your actual job, im actually learning about it now in my investments class.

[aiki14]

Keep good records as you'll need to establish the basis and the selling price and profit and loss, and of course watch out for wash sales. And there are special rules for derivatives and other types of investments. You can also incorporate yourself and make some adjustments. You'll need to itemize so you'll have to do a 1040 not an A or EZ, and depending on how you file and how many trades you may have to do various schedules and additional forms. The Tax shops like Block charge by the entry so you may find your gonna have to do it yourself or hire an accountant, and the software like Turbotax have a limit to how many trades you can enter, and if you excede the number you may have to paper file. My tax return for '05 was 61 pages and several k, and I have more trades this year. Don't forget to figure that into your calculations when you decide to trade for a living. When I get back in the states I can post more specific info, if anyone is interested drop me a PM.

[zyzzyva57]

Scottrade uses GainesKeeper to put your trades into many tax programs

I suspect other brokers do the same

[Malakas007]

Does Ameritrade use any sort of program to enter trades into a program for instance like Quicken?

[zyzzyva57]

Scottrade uses a FREE GainKeeper what I call "lite," because you do not have an account with GainsKeeper. With Scottrade's version you can export to the more popular tax programs, Excel, Quicken, and Money--Oh, I use Scottrae Lite, not the Big Mama for Day Traders and the like. Scottrade does not advertise this FREE service for some reason. I would imagine the other popular el cheapo brokers surely offer this. I would sure consider this in evaluating brokers.

[TonyM]

The Gainskeeper and account history features are quick and easy ways to track your trading activity by category, I don't know how other brokers do it but I do like Scottrade's free and paid utilities.

[zyzzyva57]

Part of learning the stock game is just learning about your broker's services and web site

Scottrade ain't the easiest web site around--I give it a "C" for intuitiveness

Other than this, it works fine for me--a low level mid-range Newbie

For a Cramer type, I guess s/he would need the Scottrade DeLuxe (One day, it would be nice to reach the level to need all the bells and whistles :) )