ASSOCIATION
TRADER TAX BENEFITS: JOIN US

GTT "virtual lobbying campaign" for "Trader Tax Relief & Corrections"

Updated August 2009. With your cooperation, we can work together as a "virtual lobby" before Congress and the IRS, and pressure the IRS to correct the glaring tax problems traders face.

Traders, for the most part, are individuals trading for their own accounts (as "sole proprietors"), or in proprietary trading firms. Traders do not have anyone to speak for their specific "trader tax" interests in Washington.

On the other hand, brokerage firms, banks and corporate America have their well-healed lobbyists spinning the tax and business law changes in their favor, at the expense of traders and investors.

Traders can't afford to not defend their interests, especially during this time of great change in Washington. Yes, traders will benefit from general advocacy campaigns to fix the accounting scandals, but no one except us is currently trying to bring about important tax relief specific to the needs of traders.

Summary of major desired tax law changes:

"Retroactive" application of the mark-to-market accounting rules: This would allow all traders who lost a fortune since 1999 to receive immediate tax refunds by filing net operating loss (NOL) tax returns. Currently, only traders who elect mark-to-market accounting on time are entitled to these NOL refunds. The election rules are complex and unpublicized, and the transition rules are not fair. We want to fix this for the benefit of all traders.

Help formulate new "exam guidelines" to be used in IRS exams of traders, which are occurring in increasing numbers: Recently, the IRS dramatically increased its target number of IRS exams in general, and specifically against traders. We have noticed that the IRS is now attacking "money-losing traders" and "part-time traders." Click on the prior links to learn more.

Improve the definition of a trader in IRS publications, Revenue Procedures and on the IRS Web site: The current definition of a trader is vague and confusing. All the trader tax status benefits hinge on this definition, which is lacking. The definition is primarily defined in old tax-court cases, which are mostly obsolete now because those opinions were written long before the entire trading industry changed. It is now much easier for a trader to operate a trading business because of the creation of home computers, the Internet, direct-access brokerages, etc.

You may prefer to be solo when it comes to your trading account, but being on your own doesn’t work when dealing with the IRS lion (they gave up being a lamb a few years ago). Unless traders have a strong group behind them, the lion will pick them off one by one at the watering hole. Don't take your chances – just follow me. I have not steered you wrong to date. Not only has the IRS "sold traders short" on delivering what Congress intended (ordinary loss treatment for ALL traders), but the IRS has increased the number of audits it performs on traders, and it is acting with impunity.

Join by sending an e-mail – it takes 15 minutes
Hopefully, our virtual advocacy campaign will be sufficient to bring about change. Simply send our standard e-mail to Congress and the IRS, and give every trader you know (individuals, companies and chat rooms) a link to this page.

We ask that the media publish stories about our campaign and/or contract Robert A. Green, CPA, for an interview.

Thank you, the trading community, for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Robert A. Green, CPA
President of GreenTraderTax.com
association@greencompany.com

For background information on why we need this advocacy initiative, visit the following pages on our Web site:

Missed mark-to-market accounting: This advocacy initiative may be your only chance for relief if you missed MTM.

Private Letter Rulings: If you missed MTM, you could file a PLR, but those are expensive and the chance of success is very small.

Net Operating Losses: If you missed electing MTM on time, your only chance to get NOL refunds may be this advocacy initiative.

IRS Exam Information for Traders: See why you need this advocacy initiative; the IRS has turned up the heat on traders.

Part-time traders and money-losing traders: If you lost money trading, the IRS may try to give you a hard time. We want to discourage that with new guidelines for traders.