Am I an investor or a business if I trade every day?
There is no single test and no volume at which the answer flips. The characterisation is drawn from the whole picture: how often you trade, how long positions are held, whether you are financing them with borrowed money, how much of your time and knowledge the activity takes, and what you intended when you bought. Frequent short-held positions funded on margin look like a business; occasional purchases held for yield do not. It matters because the consequences run in opposite directions. Business treatment brings the full profit into income and lets expenses and losses be used broadly; investment treatment taxes gains on a different footing and restricts both.
Can I deduct trading losses against my employment income?
Only if the activity is a business. Where trading amounts to a business, losses are ordinary business losses and can generally be set against income from other sources in the year, with rules for carrying the excess to other years. Where the activity is investment, losses are capital and are ring-fenced: they reduce gains rather than salary, and in most systems they wait in carry-forward until there is a gain to absorb them. That is why the characterisation question is usually raised by a loss year rather than a profitable one, and why a position taken in a good year is hard to reverse in a bad one.
Can trading inside a registered account cause a tax problem?
It can. The shelter a registered or tax-favoured account gives is for holding investments, not for carrying on a trading business inside the wrapper. Where the activity in the account has the character of a business, systems that make that distinction can tax the profits despite the wrapper, and the account holder rather than the plan often bears it. The factors are the same ones that characterise trading generally: frequency, holding period, borrowing, and how the account is being used. Short-held, high-turnover activity in an account intended for long-term holding is what draws the enquiry.
My broker is abroad — do I have to report the account?
Very probably, and separately from reporting the income. Foreign asset reporting regimes generally attach to holding the account above a threshold, not to selling anything, so a year in which you made no disposals and no profit can still be a year in which a report was due. The account being with a well-known broker, or being funded from money already taxed, changes nothing. These regimes tend to carry their own penalties, set by lateness rather than by tax owed, which is why an unreported account is worth dealing with before an enquiry rather than after.
I moved countries with open positions — how are they taxed?
Two systems can end up measuring the same profit from different starting points. The country you left may treat your holdings as disposed of at their value on the day you ceased to be resident, taxing the gain to that point even though you sold nothing. The country you arrived in generally measures from what you actually paid, or from the value when you arrived, depending on its own rules. Where those bases differ, the same appreciation is taxed twice or falls out of charge entirely. Recording defensible values on the day residence changed is what makes either result arguable later.
Are data feeds, platform fees and a home office deductible?
It follows the characterisation. If the trading is a business, the costs of running it are deductible on ordinary principles: market data, commissions and fees, the workspace in the proportion it is used for the work, and the equipment relieved over time. If the activity is investment, most systems allow very little beyond the costs that attach directly to a purchase or sale, and those generally adjust the cost or the proceeds rather than being claimed as expenses. So the same invoice is a deduction or nothing depending on a question you should settle before you claim it.
Do I have to file in both countries?
Frequently yes, and the two filings do different jobs. The country where the income arises taxes it at source; the country where you are resident taxes your worldwide income and then gives credit for the tax already paid. Filing only one side is what leaves relief unclaimed — the credit has to be asked for on a return. We prepare both sides so the numbers agree. See dual filing.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
