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CFD is not tax assessable

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The only purpose of share trading is to make a profit. The ATO considers that all people who trade in shares are either share traders or investors. The difference between share traders and investors is explained in various ATO publications. Share traders are treated differently from investors as far as tax is concerned. Anybody who thinks can prove they do share trading purely as a hobby is probably being over-optimistic.

If somebody is in business as a share trader then if they are trading CFDs it would be difficult to argue that CFDs have nothing to do with share trading.

Best of luck to anybody who thinks they can convince ATO and the courts otherwise.
 
I thought CFD's were considered under the same guidelines as options by the ATO and every other govt. dept , until a gain had been made or a loss , the contract itself was not considered an asset , hence not having to report it .

This is something that pop up for myself when I took up a load of 4.65 call options when Orica plummeted and called them in later , repeating the process at a 10.00 odd call also .

Also some company options that came attached with new raisings , I had and did not have to report those either . Of course once exited I was obligated to report the movement as it had been converted to an asset form .
 
So if your share spending & collecting is just a hobby, a gambling type hobby then that turns the "am I gambling or trading" argument on its head. Instead of everyone going red in the face trying to prove they're trading not gambling------.

: just stirring

DYOR, DYOT, DYOTLI
 
From all the posts on all the forums all I could gather is that confusion reigns supreme on the subject. Most agree that CFD's are taxable but some say they are subject to CGT and others argue that it's income/loss.
Can anyone who actually trades CFD's tell which way they do it please?
 
CFD providers, whilst stressing they are not giving taxation advice, say that it's profit and loss. That's one of the nice things about CFDs you do not have to keep another set of records for the ATO, neither to you get the paper work that you would with share trading. You would keep good ongoing profit and loss records as part of your money/risk management.
 
I claimed a loss on CFD transactions last FY. Only a few grand but there was never any problems following this action. Accountant didn`t flinch at the notion, and treated it among normal share trading.

This FY I`d love to pay heaps of CGT.
 
So if you trade cfd's then its assessed as income if your are an active cfd trader??
 
So if you trade cfd's then its assessed as income if your are an active cfd trader??

Anyone been able to verify this?????
 
ATO knows best, most people who trade cfd lose money.
So, instead naming them the losers who can't claim capital loss, they came up with this recreational gamblers.

Very nice ATO.
 
CFD's are considered as trading stock, hence they are on revenue account as opposed to capital account. Therefore they have no CGT implications, but are treated as assesable income.

In certain circumstances, one off CFD trades may be considered gambling, therefore not creating a taxable event.
 
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