CGT 30-day rule and CFDs

xnoxxnox

I am trading CFDs (contracts for difference) with underlying asset index futures contracts on a margin. Overall, this is chargeable under CGT. If all goes well, I might break the CGT annual limit this year, but i'm not holding my breath.

Starting reading about CGT tax and I have questions about the same-day / 30-day matching rules and average cost basis. Most likely is that I will have disposals and acquisitions within 30-day window across the tax year, and I will most likely carry-over open positions across the tax year.

Do CFDs on futures fall under the 30-day matching rules? same day matching rule? asset pooling (i.e. using average cost basis for all transactions)?

The matching rules seem very weird as it's not usual FIFO nor LIFO accounting. The way I currently track my holdings records is on LIFO basis, but I guess I'll have to keep track of the average cost basis instead - and then sohow carry-over net daily disposals to the subsequent year if they are matched with net daily acquisitions from the next year.

agrinnall

Sounds to me like you need to be paying an accountant rather than hoping to get replies for free on here that may or may not be accurate and that you certainly won't have any comeback on if they are wrong.

xnoxxnox

Right. I think I will just write to HMRC with my best effort weighted average calculations, and if they complain we will work it out. Reading https://www.taxation.co.uk/Articles/2014/02/05/320021/splash really is not fun, seems like they have over-fiddled with cost basis calculations.

Apodemus

You definitely need expert opinion on this!

I would have thought (and I am not in any way expert in this!) that you need to keep a running average cost price, updated after each purchase and that is the figure to deduct from each sale or to feed in to the next purchase price calculation. That would be the same principle whether you trade twice a day or twice a decade.