Do i need to keep details of spread bets?

longwalks1

other than for personal reference, do i need to keep a record/log of trades made when spread betting?
Thanks

bowlhead99

britishboy wrote: »

other than for personal reference, do i need to keep a record/log of trades made when spread betting?
Thanks

The profits and losses from financial or sporting spread bets are outside the scope of capital gains tax.

In theory, there are some professions where if you are doing something, even ostensibly 'tax free', by way of a trade or business, and making your living at it, then you would need to pay tax on the overall profits of that business. In the USA for example, professional gamblers would track their sessions at the tables and pay tax on the net income they get from their pursuits. But over here, professional gambling or betting is not something that it's believed you can properly make money from - so HMRC don't want to know.

See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim22017.htm

If you were actually running a spreadbet company or professionally making money by selling betting systems or appearing on TV as the Martin Lewis of spreadbetting (S.B.E.?) then the money you got from those activities would be taxable, but amounts specificially won on individual trades, not.

The 'other than for personal reference' is perhaps quite relevant because it's fun/interesting to see how much your hobby is costing you over time, or perhaps you're betting to hedge or supplement a mainstream portfolio so the overall return only makes sense when you aggregate the performance of the spreadbets with the physical portfolios.

However, generally the spreadbet firms keep statements or transaction history available for a long time so you don't need your own printed copy unless you think they'll remove that facility or go out of business. My IG account lets me search back to 2007.

Caveat on the tax records: I am not a tax professional and passed my chartered accounting exams more than a decade ago (and it didn't come up in our training anyhow...)