TRADERS
SERVICES: TAX PREPARATION & PLANNING

Preparation and planning of federal and state income tax returns for traders (retail, proprietary, hedge funds, and management companies [both individuals and entities]) is our core business.

In our tax preparation service, we distinguish between investors and business traders. Click here to read about the difference on our sign up page for investors. This page is for business traders to sign up on.

2011 tax returns

• It's the official start of the 2011 tax preparation and filing season. As you get bombarded with advertising for free online tax solutions with online chats and accuracy guarantees, consider that those savings may be $100 for a software charge. The big problem is that active traders will probably overpay or underpay their taxes by thousands of dollars. Guarantees don't cover leaving out trader tax status, choosing the incorrect tax treatment, or using the wrong trade accounting net income or loss. So, while these solutions may sound attractive to simple wage earners, they are the wrong solutions for business traders, who have many tax pitfalls and opportunities for significant tax savings too. But, most accountants are not familiar with trader tax savings strategies, and it's well beyond the parameters of what these services and local accountants can offer.

  If you're speaking with a local tax professional, find out if he or she is qualified to deal with your special tax needs. Ask them if you qualify for trader tax status (business treatment), 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. is education included). If they draw a blank on any of these questions – they very likely will - then you should get up and walk away. Many local CPAs prefer that traders work with trader tax experts, as they don’t want tax preparer penalties either. With complicated new 1099-Bs coming this tax season – which are still not good enough for tax reporting – it’s another excellent year to use our content, trader tax guides, trade-accounting software, and consulting and tax preparation 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 2011 tax preparation service covers 2012 tax planning too. We address ongoing trader tax status, accounting, 2012 quarterly estimated tax payments, entities, tax-treatment election deadlines, retirement plans, health insurance and much more. 2012 is an important tax planning year with the Bush-era tax cuts scheduled to expire at year-end.
  
  
• 2011 Tax Extensions: If you don't file your tax returns on time, file for an automatic extension, which is only valid if you pay 90% of your tax liability with the extension. Also, make sure to 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.
  

Tax Planning: We recommend tax planning throughout the year — on quarterly estimated income taxes due, Section 475 MTM and Section 988 forex opt-out elections, entities, retirement plans, and other tax savings strategies. Start here. The Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of 2012 on all taxpayers. Therefore, for 2011 year-end planning, there was no need to consider accelerating income, which could be a good idea toward the end of 2012. There are some annual tax extenders that Congress must deal with again in early 2012. Congress already passed the annual AMT inflation patch for 2011, but it has not done that patch yet for 2012. For these reasons, we didn't do a major update to our 2011 year-end tax planning content. We will have a major update going into year-end 2012 and there should be lots of action in this election year. Much may not happen until the lame-duck session after the November Presidential and Congressional elections.

Entities. Now is an excellent time to form a new entity for 2012. An entity helps with trader tax status (business-expense deduction) issues and unlocks the additional tax savings for 2012 AGI-deduction strategies (retirement plans and health insurance premiums).Click here to learn more on our entities page.

Prior Years: The 2010 income tax filing deadline was Oct. 17, 2011. We are happy to help you with late tax returns, NOL carryback returns, and amended returns. The IRS will eventually catch up with you, mostly due to 1099 filings (and the IRS’s matching program). If you are flagged in the IRS’s system, it will then most likely send you a jeopardy (estimate) assessment, which may include a large amount of taxes, penalties, and interest due. Act on your own earlier to improve your chances when seeking abatement of penalties. Penalties on pass-through entity tax returns have increased considerably.

RETAINERS:

Second retainer for preparation of an entity or other return Note if you are signing up for an individual and entity return, kindly purchase both above retainers ($750 + $500 = $1,250). $500

Our highly experienced CPAs will help you determine whether to use "trader tax status" or "investor tax status." This key decision unlocks all the trader tax benefits. You may be a "close call" for trader tax status and you need our judgment and knowledge to make this vital call. If you fall short of trader tax status, we offer you lower fees in our GreenTrader Investor Tax Preparation Service. Click here to learn more.

Either way, with or without trader tax status, or using your own trade accounting solutions, we will do the very best for you with deductions and other proprietary GreenTrader tax strategies. Most importantly, when we prepare your tax return, you can count on us not raising red flags with the IRS, thus reducing your chance of an IRS exam. Plus, if you do get audited or the IRS asks questions, we will defend you until the end. We have the best record in the country on winning trader exams and we continue to help define trader tax law. Click here to learn more about our IRS and/or state tax exam representation service.

Opt for our full service and have us do your annual tax return preparation and planning, form a trading entity, and set up a tax-beneficial retirement plan. Give us one year to please you with our excellent tax savings results and fair fees and you will use us for a lifetime – that's just what we want!

Learn more about our tax preparation service:
Deliverables: What you can expect to receive with our service.
GTT advantage: Why you should select GTT 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.
Prior year returns (we review them to see if you benefit from an amended return).
Costs: Retainer, fees & quotes.
e-filing.
Proprietary Traders.
Late Returns.
Last-minute Filers.

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

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.

Important note about e-filing trader returns: See our above paragraph about why it's a good time to switch to GTT TradeLog for tax return filings. Recent IRS statements insist that taxpayer's include line-by-line reporting of trades on Schedule D-1 with e-filed returns. Attachments, in lieu of Schedule D-1 are allowed by the IRS for paper-filed returns only (not e-filed returns). GTT TradeLog is an excellent solution for both e-filing and paper-filed returns.

Proprietary Traders: We also recommend that proprietary traders sign up for our tax preparation services. We don't have to spend time on trade accounting since your prop firm handles that, so our fees are less than for retail traders. We will find lots of ways for you to deduct non-reimbursed business expenses, including home-office expenses, and that will save you thousands of dollars more. We will also make sure you can deduct any lost deposits with the firm. The proprietary trading industry is changing all the time and faces regulatory risks, exams and enforcement actions. We will do our best to keep you out of harm's way. Learn more in our proprietary trading tax section and then return here to sign up for our tax preparation service. We also prepare tax returns for proprietary trading firms.

Late Returns:
October 15th was the extended due date for filing prior year individual tax returns . Trader tax matters are highly complex and each year many traders miss that tax deadline. Some traders qualify for hurricane or other tax-relief, and they have extended tax deadlines. Other traders who have not yet filed don't owe taxes and they can safely file late without tax consequences. If you don't file there will be serious consequences. Don't wait for the IRS to contact you first. Remember, the IRS sees your Form 1099s and they can show millions in proceeds. The IRS has no way of knowing if you lost or made a fortune and owe taxes.

Although it is past Oct. 15 (the extension due date), we still welcome you to sign up for our tax return preparation services. We are also still preparing and fixing (i.e., amending) prior year tax returns for many clients. Click here to see how we can help.