TRADERS
SERVICES: TAX PREPARATION: DELIVERABLES

What you can expect to receive with our service:

Overview: We communicate by phone and e-mail to make sure we know you well, discuss your special tax needs and objectives, and review exactly what you need to send us (by e-mail, fax, mail or courier). We perform the services listed below (preparation, trade accounting, tax planning, review, consultation and representation). We deliver our work (PDF files) by e-mail, and after your approval, we deliver your tax returns by FedEx (unless we e-file instead).

Current year tax returns: We will prepare your entire federal and state income tax returns using all available trader tax status benefits. If you and/or your spouse have significant non-trading tax matters or activity, this is no problem. We are also general tax experts (and have lots of money-saving ideas). We have many clients who are not traders, and we have been successfully servicing them since our company was founded in 1983.

E-Organizer: We'll send you by e-mail, and regular mail if you prefer, an electronic e-Organizer. If you are a returning client, the e-organizer will include all your prior year tax information and have input areas for your current year. When you e-mail it back to us, we can import your data directly into our tax software. This saves us time and, as a result, reduces your fee. Do not enter trades into the e-organizer, as that is inefficient. Other trade accounting solutions can be found below.

Prior tax returns and amended returns: We will also review your prior tax returns, up to two years, to see if we can get you a tax refund retroactively by filing an amended tax return (a simple form that shows the changes in taxable income and tax). We will also look for errors, keeping in mind that many accountants have made numerous mistakes on tax returns for traders (the returns are complex). We are very confident that we can find some extra tax savings for you during our review, which will be focused on trader tax matters. For example, we often find that traders omitted ordinary tax deductions for many types of allowable expenses, which should be reported on Schedule C (Business Profit and Loss for a sole proprietor trader). This discovery usually generates thousands of dollars in tax refunds. You can see that it is cost efficient to engage our firm to prepare these amended tax returns. Remember that "trader tax status" can be applied "after-the-fact." Only mark-to-market accounting must be elected in advance of year-end.

Accounting for trading gains and losses:
.. For securities, consider using our GTT TradeLog tax-accounting software program to calculate your trading gains and losses. We offer an accounting service with GTT TradeLog.
..For futures, you don't need software; your broker reports net futures gains and losses on a Form 1099.
..As a last resort (and first resort for forex), we can use our GTT customized worksheet templates to figure out your trading gains and losses.
..Accounting help is one of the principal reasons why many traders engage our firm for their annual income tax preparation. For them, our help is vital, because they are otherwise lost in the woods.
..For our tax preparation service, you can use any program or solution around for trade accounting; we just want to make sure it's correct!
..Note that the IRS is forcing line-by-line reporting for securities only in 2005 and later years and you must attach IRS-compliant reports.

Normal tax preparation help; including online & phone help and resources: Once you sign up for our preparation service, you immediately download a user name and password to enter our preparation login section. We tell you everything we need from you and how to organize your tax information. And, to make sure you don't leave anything out, we give you plenty of tools and resources to work efficiently and effectively. We also speak with you by phone to review your special needs and to consult with you throughout our preparation process. You will be pleased with our communications and having a direct dial number to your GTT assigned CPA Monday though Saturday.

Tax Planning: We help you plan your taxes for the current tax year while we prepare your tax returns for the year just ended. Plenty of tax planning ideas, strategies and resources can be found in our login section.

Trader tax status and mark-to-market accounting elections for the following tax year: If you want to elect mark-to-market (MTM) accounting for the current year, you must do so by April 15th of the current year (for individuals) or March 15th (for existing calendar year corporations). Most likely, we will be working on your tax preparation before those deadlines and will be able to consult you on whether or not to elect MTM before the deadline. We also prepare the MTM elections for you. Note – if you already used MTM, it automatically carries over to future years (as long as you remain in your trading business), and another election is not required. In order to use MTM for the current tax year, you must qualify as being in the trading business for that year (see our page on trader tax status). We will consult you on how to qualify for trader tax status.

Entities, retirement plans and more: Many of our trader clients are interested to know if a trading entity is suitable for them. Others are interested in setting up a retirement plan. Once you become a preparation client and pay your retainer, you are a full-fledged client of our firm. At this point, you may ask us about entities, retirement plans and anything else. You can purchase the appropriate retainer when we are ready to proceed with those services.

IRS and state representation in exams: Rest assured, if the IRS or state sends you an exam notice, we will take care of everything. We do it by mail, e-mail and phone (which are perfectly acceptable). In fact, this eliminates the need for a personal meeting, and that helps to narrow the focus of your exam. Often, we can get the IRS to "reconsider" an exam; which means they close the exam even before it gets under way. Our greatest strength is in preventing exams and winning them fast when they occur. Learn more about our representation services here. With our firm's name listed on your tax returns as preparer, you will have peace of mind and comfort knowing that your returns are 100 percent correct, and that the IRS will not have a field day challenging your return, denying your trader tax status, or holding up or disallowing your refunds. You can purchase a pre-paid exam defense if you like, learn more here.