Share Trading (Tax)

Discussion in 'Accounting & Tax' started by thesuperman, 11th May, 2016.

Join Australia's most dynamic and respected property investment community
  1. thesuperman

    thesuperman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    26th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    460
    Location:
    Australia
    I use OpenMarkets & Westpac only. I'm not sure on the quality of info the accountant can pull from this.

    I didn't provide the accountant my HIN or an EOFY broker report that lists all the trades (shares bought, sold & brokerage). I just did the calculations of working the profit/loss of each share during that time & adding the figures together, therefore getting the total as over $7k profit. Should I have given both the HIN & the EOFY broker report listing all trades?
     
  2. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    23,319
    Location:
    Sydney
    Probably not worth it but it might indicate a issue (see below) . If you are certain of your calcs then they can work with that. If you give them more info then they may have to review and check it. The more stuff you give them the more they must review / read etc...Hence the more it costs.

    As a share trader you must also provide the accountant with details of the cost and market value of shares on hand at year end as well as buy sell profits. Note that the value of shares (unrealised) is treated as income (or a deduction). Likewise if shares were held at 30 June of the prev year the change in value since 30 June is what is needed not the raw buy sell profit. For trades within the year the buy/sell is fine.
     
  3. thesuperman

    thesuperman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    26th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    460
    Location:
    Australia
    Wow, why is that the value of the shares (unrealised) is treated as income (or a deduction) as of 30th June? You haven't made a profit or loss until you sell. If that's the case, why isn't property the same? Or managed funds?

    So does the ATO automatically send the accountant the 30th June holdings share price? I did have a few stocks which were about $20k in unrealised losses which I ended up selling the following financial year (this financial year). But that wouldn't explain why the accountant put in $40k+ in capital losses on my tax though.
     
  4. BennEznElle

    BennEznElle Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    177
    Location:
    Adelaide
    If you are a share trader then you are essentially in the business of trading shares. Therefore the shares are your stock and it needs to be revalued.

    No the ATO does not send share values or holdings to the accountant but they have software to lookup the share price or Yahoo finance etc. Something definitely doesn't seem right with the capital losses then.