How to show day trading gains and losses on return

Do I have to show each individual transaction?

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Client has given me data on day trading in 2019/20.  His objective is to make gains, not to provide extra income, but to build up the value of his investment in the activity, so I believe that it should be declared on the CGT pages of the SATR.

The activity started on 9/12/19 and there were 57 trades in the year.  42 of these resulted in overall gains of approx £3k and 15 in losses of approx £1k.  All of the investments are in unit trusts.

The information he has downloaded from the investment platfom he was using just gives the date of each sale; the amount realised; the cost of the holding. The total value of sales in the year was nearly £248k.  

I know that in theory all of these trades should be detailed individually on the return and I can probably get the client to find the name of each investment from the contract notes but I am baulking at the task of entering all the detail.  Is there any way in which I could enter it in summary form with an attached schedule?  My tax return software is PTP.

Replies (11)

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
14th Jan 2021 18:34

I would report in aggregate myself.

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
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By Paul Crowley
14th Jan 2021 18:57

Same here
Unless there are other gains It matters not a jot as covered by allowance

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By Wanderer
14th Jan 2021 18:43

Some would report 57 trades and charge a hefty fee for doing so.

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Replying to Wanderer:
By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
14th Jan 2021 18:52

id like the client back the following year!

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By Matrix
14th Jan 2021 19:53

57 sales in less than 4 months but he is not trading?

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Replying to Matrix:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
14th Jan 2021 20:21

I doubt HMRC would agree he was trading.

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paddle steamer
By DJKL
14th Jan 2021 20:20

Danger here is how they pool, B & B, what client still held at year end, the fact that whoever he held through recorded gains/losses as given should be approached with caution, if the taxpayer was going in and out of the same holdings great care is needed as online providers very often do not match to CGT rules.

Whilst the OP may wish to just rely on what has been supplied, that can be very dangerous (I used to do a return with over 100 sales in a year), I recreated the pools, the differences between my year end holdings and the broker could be very substantial (though volume was much higher, £2-3 million a year of sales)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shares-and-capital-gains-tax-...

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Replying to DJKL:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
14th Jan 2021 20:31

By chance just had out the last year sheet re the case mentioned, Stocktrade had closing holdings at 5.4.14 as circa £152k, the pools had them as £255k, these differences had built up because over the years the stocktrade account incorrectly allocated for CGT purposes, especially re purchases within 30 days post sale.
Caveat emptor when relying on brokers.

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By mumpin
14th Jan 2021 20:49

What about the Badges of Trade?

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Replying to mumpin:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
14th Jan 2021 21:17

I have never dealt with a private investor badged as trading in securities, have you?

There have been cases (Ali springs to mind) but they are few and far between.

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/community/industry-insights/trading-succ...

Edit- the one point that I ought to have mentioned is, if profits are expected why would one wish gains taxed as profits, especially given access to CGT annual allowance, if one expected losses then why trading in the first place and is there a profit motive, it seems to me the arguments that someone is trading only come to the fore post event not prior.

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Woolpit Gus
By nutwood
15th Jan 2021 11:44

Thanks all for your comments. In the current year there were 22 trades up to September when the whole activity was put into an ISA wrapper.

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