INVESTORS
SERVICES: TAX COMPLIANCE FOR INVESTORS

Tax compliance, including tax preparation and planning of federal and state income tax returns for investors, business traders, proprietary traders, hedge funds, and management companies (both individuals and entities) is our core business. We have many non-trader clients, too.

There are some key differences between investors and business traders.

• While business traders enjoy more tax breaks than investors, both face many of the same tax-compliance challenges and pitfalls. Active securities traders face headaches with cost-basis reporting and Form 8949, whether they rise to the level of trader tax status (business treatment), or not. It's often unclear whether an active trader qualifies for trader tax status, and our CPAs make that determination during our tax compliance service, when we have all the facts, circumstances and frequency of trades in front of us. We do much of the same work for both investors and business traders. Click here to read more about the differences in investors and business traders.

Our tax compliance services for investors (click here for our retainers):

• If you need help using TradeLog software for your trade accounting on securities, consider our TradeLog accounting services.
• Our 2012 tax preparation service covers 2013 tax planning too.
• Late entity tax returns are subject to late filing penalties in all cases. See the IRS Information About Your Notice, Penalty and Interest and scroll to page 2, #32. Late filing may be tolerable in some cases -- contact us for details. While we recommend trading entities to business traders, some investors have entities, too.
• If you elected Section 475 MTM for 2012 on your existing entity or as an individual sole proprietor business trader - and you don't qualify for trader tax status in 2012 - the Section 475 election is null and void. In that case, you don't have to file a Form 3115 (Change of Accounting Method). You will have to re-elect Section 475 MTM in the subsequent year if you desire that accounting treatment.
• If you don't file your tax returns on time, file for an automatic extension, which is valid if you pay 90% of your tax liability with the extension. Learn more about extension strategies, and special hardship relief (Form 1127-A) in our blog. Include your Section 475 MTM election with that extension too if you want that important election. The automatic extension is until Sept. 15 for partnerships, LLCs filing as partnerships and S-corps, and Oct. 15 for individuals, including single-member LLCs that are disregarded entities. It's better to sign up with us before the extension so we can deal with trader tax status and the mark-to-market election strategy on time. There are consequences for missing tax filing and election deadlines, including penalties and jeopardizing tax treatment.
• If you plan to qualify for trader tax status in 2013, now is an excellent time to form a new entity for 2013. Learn more on our entities page. See our new ideas for using entities to avoid Obama-era tax hikes on upper-income individuals in our Webinar recording “Post fiscal cliff tax planning for traders and key trader tax issues to consider for 2012 tax preparation.”
• Prior Years: We are happy to help you with late tax returns, NOL carryback returns, and amended returns.

Why hire our firm?

• Why choose us? Most accountants aren't familiar with trader tax savings strategies, and it's well beyond the parameters of what these services and local accountants can offer. We offer you the most prudent ideas for tax savings (as laid out in Robert Green's The Tax Guide for Traders and Green's 2013 Trader Tax Guide). Many local accountants and preparers are struggling with the new IRS cost-basis reporting rules and Form 8949. We hear horror stories of CPAs and retail store front accountants relying on 1099-Bs, even though there are widely-known errors on wash sales and more.
  
• If you use a local tax professional, find out if they are qualified to deal with your special tax needs. Ask if you qualify for trader tax status, if you can use Section 475 MTM ordinary loss treatment, how to handle ETF options and spot forex, if you can do a retirement plan contribution and deduct health insurance premiums in connection with your trading gains, if you owe self-employment tax on trading gains, and what types of business or investment expenses you can deduct (i.e. if education is included). If they draw a blank on any of these questions, walk away. With complicated new 1099-Bs coming again this tax season, it’s another reason to use our services.
  
• Tax preparation is our most popular service and we guarantee you will be very pleased with our great prices, fast service and wonderful customer experience. Just read our many great testimonials. We've been the respected, trusted and leading CPA firm for online traders since day one. We have the best, most experienced trader-tax preparation CPAs in the country.
  
• Our CPAs will help you determine whether to use "trader tax status" or "investor tax status." This key decision unlocks all the trader tax benefits.
  
  RETAINERS
  
  All of our retainers are $625. Unsure which service is right for you? Don't worry, we'll figure it out together after you sign up. Simply choose one below to get started. Hedge funds sign up for a different retainer here.
  
  Free complementary access to Green's 2013 Trader Tax Guide (a $39.95 value) comes with any of our below tax compliance retainers. Please read this guide, or just the parts that draw your interest. We find that an ‘educated consumer is our best customer.’ In addition to focusing on your 2012 tax compliance, we want to help you with 2013 tax planning.

INDIVIDUAL TAX RETURN (Most clients choose this retainer. It's for trading in your own individual name — or SMLLC disregarded entity — if you are a business trader or an active investor. We will figure out your correct status during our engagement.) $625, Retainer Minimum Price

PARTNERSHIP TAX RETURN (Choose this option if you had a general partnership, multi-member LLC or LP during the year. If you want our CPAs to prepare your individual tax returns, then also purchase the individual retainer.) $625, Retainer Minimum Price

S-CORP. TAX RETURN (If you had an S-corp. or SMLLC electing S-corp treatment during the year, then choose this retainer. If you want our CPAs to prepare your individual tax returns, then also purchase the individual retainer.) $625, Retainer Minimum Price

CORPORATION TAX RETURN (If you had a C-corp. during the year, then choose this retainer. If you want our CPAs to prepare your individual tax returns, then also purchase the individual retainer.) $625, Retainer Minimum Price

OTHER TYPE OF TAX RETURN (Choose this retainer for other types of returns, including trust, estate, retirement plan, or if you're unsure of which retainer to choose.) $625, Retainer Minimum Price

Learn more about our tax preparation service:
Communication, Organizers, Deliverables & Accounting Issues: What you can expect to receive with our service.
GreenTraderTax advantage: Why you should select us as your trader tax preparer.
Virtual process: Efficiency, effectiveness, documentation, convenience, and personal touch.
IRS exams: How we'll represent you in front of the IRS (if that unfortunately event happens).
We review prior year returns to see if you benefit from an amended return.
Costs: Retainer, fees & quotes.
Proprietary Traders: We also recommend that proprietary traders sign up for our tax preparation services. Learn more in our proprietary trading tax section and then return here to sign up.
Late Returns: Oct. 15 was the extended due date for filing prior year individual tax returns, but we still welcome you to sign up for our tax return preparation services. We are also still preparing and fixing prior year tax returns for many clients. Click here to see how we can help.

We are e-filing most federal and state tax returns again this year. We simply push a button in our software and your return is filed. E-filing is easier and less expensive than delivering paper returns, and your tax return and refunds are processed faster.

Good news! Starting with 2012 tax filings, the IRS is accepting pdf attachments with e-filings of individual tax returns; which they only allowed on entity e-filings in prior years. We no longer have to mail large TradeLog reports with Form 8453, separate from the e-filing.

If you have any questions about our trader tax preparation services, please contact us at info@greencompany.com or call us.

In our tax preparation service, we distinguish between "Investors" and "Business Traders."

• While both may be active traders with complex tax treatment and accounting issues for trading gains and losses, business traders get unlimited business deductions, while investors can't deduct home office and education expenses, plus investors face many restrictions on allowable investment expenses. The average tax savings for business traders versus investors is around $8,000. But, investors still need us to make sure their trade accounting is correct and to maximize investment expenses. More importantly, we use our industry-leading judgment to determine if you qualify for trader tax status. We often help clients qualify in the current year, while we prepare their tax returns for the past year. In many cases, if you qualify in the current year, it's better to capitalize your prior year investment expenses to deduct them as start-up business expenses in the current year. Investors need us too and we offer them a break on our fees.
  
  
• Business traders may also elect (on time) Section 475 MTM ordinary loss treatment on securities, avoiding wash sales and capital loss limitations. Some clients have gotten refund checks in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from net operating loss (NOL) carryback returns, and they couldn't get any of that as an investor. One key strategy that we utilize is dealing with significant capital loss carryovers. You want subsequent capital gains treatment to use up capital loss carryovers. That can include capital gains passed-through from a new trading entity. Yet, if you have new trading losses, you prefer Section 475 MTM ordinary business loss treatment. We navigate out of this hole with entities. See our entities page to learn more. Again, if you're an investor and becoming a business trader soon, we can help you with these strategies too.
  
  
• Business traders should consider forming an entity to save taxes with retirement plans and health-insurance premium deductions. Although investment companies can try these strategies too, they're often tax inefficient and potentially costly, with self-employment taxes costing more than income tax savings. For business traders, it's almost always tax beneficial with net savings of several thousand dollars up to $17,000 for a married couple. Click here for a retainer when ready.