TAX INFORMATION

US Residents: if you make profits, you are required to pay capital gains tax. Forex brokers do not report to the IRS, but it is your responsiblity to report any profits made.

If you want accurate tax information for traders & honest assistence, I highly recommend Traders Accounting.

My first year of trading equities, I had a nightmare experience with one company (whose name is a color...) who pressured me into making a $500 retainer deposit even though since I had lost money during the year, I really did not need a tax service! They neglected to mention that. And they never did my accounts, never refunded a dime of the 'deposit'.

Lesson learned: if a company rep, or even the President, tries to "close" you into signing up for their services on the first phone call, with a $500 or so retainer ... run!

Traders Accounting were honest enough to tell me when I phoned, that since my first year trading resulted in a net loss, I really didn't need to use a professional tax service just yet! (the one mentioned above just "closed" me, got the money & from that point on ... well, the money is gone...)

I have talked to the Traders Accounting people several times on the phone & they have always been incredibly courteous & kind and given freely of their advice without once trying to pressure me into commiting to their service.

Traders Accounting offers a free tax newsletter with lots of useful tips as well as occasional free online courses.

I also do not recommend GTT Trade Log software (for tracking trading accounts) because I learned they are affiliated with the above tax accounting firm that refuses to answer my emails or return any portion of my deposit.

Excel works as well as any of the fancier software. For a FREE version of Excel, go to http://www.openoffice.org/ and download their free office bundle (Word, Excel, Power Point clones).

Ask the Traders Accounting people & they will email you the Excel spreadsheet they use for trader accounting .. for free. These are good people. :-)