Jump to content
  • 0

Professional status - tax implication?


Guest Hallgente

Question

Guest Hallgente

Dear IG

 

Recently, prior to log-in, you are inviting me to register as a professional trader.  Presumably this is in view of the actions of the ESMA and their plans to limit binary options and CFD's (Spread Betting next?) and the leverage ratios applied to those products.

 

As a retail spread betting client and with regard to your deep legal, financial and tax professional services pool, can you please advise if there would be any change in my personal tax status if I nominate myself to be a 'professional'.

 

Best wishes

 

Hallgente

Link to comment

4 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

Hi - unfortunately IG can't offer any advice of tax and any information presented here shouldn't be construed as such. At present IG isn't aware of any impact this will have on a clients tax status, as the classification from retail > professional is a regulatory change and it shouldn't impact the underlying nature of the product offered, and therefore shouldn't effect taxation.

 

If, however, you are concerned on this you should seek independent tax advice from a registered tax professional. 

Link to comment
Guest Hallgente

Hi James

 

1. Thanks for the prompt reply which is disappointing to say the least.

 

2. IG, within its field is a very successful platform operator.  From your cleint base last year, you generated £491,100,000 GBP in revenues with a profit before tax of £213,700,000 GBP.  This is very high profit in the normal course of events compared to the majority of UK businesses.  IG has 185,000 active clients, those who traded at least once during the year.  The 185,000 represents the tip of the iceberg of all the clients that have tried the platform and fallen by the wayside until such time as they get new funds to try out the markets again.  This attrition rate, or churn represents over 95% of people that try their hand at making money out of the markets so over a period of (say) three years, the number of people IG sees going through its books or returning is significantly higher.  To attract this footfall to the IG proposition, IG spends over £60,000,000 a year attracting this pool of people to its products.  However, depsite this relatively large number, IG has a very small core of clients who have 'cracked the code' as such and who make money or stay alive on the markets.  This small core of the 185,000 active clients is a base from whom IG makes a lot of money. For FY2017, IG's net own funds generated from its operations was £183,900,000 with a profit after tax of £169,200,000.

 

3. I am a retail investor. I can claim similar numbers to my name as the IG numbers above save for the decimal point being four places to the left order of magnitude different.

 

4. Of the two of us, one of us should have an incentive to husband the very large revenues and handsome profit levels and help those from whom we make this money get to grips and/or get an opinion from a bona-fide firm of tax specialists, which IG will already have, and spend a tiny proprotion of the figures mentioned above to get an opinion that IG can then share with it's 185,000 clients including the small core of high value clients that generate significant revenues and profits.  It seems very short sighted, perhaps complacent, even arrogant, that IG couldn't carve out a small amount of money from the more than £60,000,000 it spends on marketing for example,  If IG spent even as much as £45,000 on a professional tax opinion, that would be less than £0.25 GBP per client for the whole year and obviously much less than that if ammortised over an even longer period.

 

Best wishes

 

Hallgente

 

 

Link to comment

Hi - although I appreciate your point, tax advisory isn't part of our business and therefore this wouldn't be something we would offer to the wider client base. This would apply to all tax discussions and queries such as end of tax year questions,  individual tax status, or the implications of any legal or regulatory changes (as above). 

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • General Statistics

    • Total Topics
      23,616
    • Total Posts
      96,995
    • Total Members
      44,180
    • Most Online
      7,522
      10/06/21 10:53

    Newest Member
    pbate4
    Joined 04/12/23 20:30
  • Posts

    • Forex or Crypto swing trading is a trading style based on identifying swings in the market. Since these swings can take a while to develop, swing trading is most often done over the course of several days or market cycles. If visualized as surfers, traders who utilize this method are out to catch and ride big, long waves. However, in order to catch those waves, traders first need to identify major pivots in the market. What is a Pivot Point? For Crypto or forex traders, it is imperative to know what pivots are and how to spot them. Pivots are the points in the market where price changes direction, from bullish to bearish to bullish, etc. There are important points in price, and there are less important points. Swing traders will not focus on minor pivots, while scalpers will try to take advantage of every minor pivot found. How to Identify Major Pivot Points for Crypto or Forex Swing Trading Major pivot points are easier to spot. They tend to form near support and resistance levels, or they themselves create a new important level. These are points where buyers and sellers are very active. Minor pivots form more regularly and randomly. 
    • The  listing of LSK on the named CEX, with their 20M+ user base will  expose LSK to a different set of traders who prefer or actively use the trading platform esp utilizng their copy trading product. This expanded reach could result in increased trading volume, which is often viewed positively in the crypto space.
    • I just learned about the recent listing of Lisk's utility token LSK on Bitget exchange, I'm curious to understand how this new development might impact both the token itself and the overall Lisk project. Apparently, this listing on Bitget adds another major exchange to the roster, alongside well-established platforms like Kraken, Kucoin, Binance, and OKX. This increased availability on different exchanges generally enhances liquidity and accessibility for traders and investors. More exchange listings can potentially attract a broader audience and bring in new participants to the Lisk ecosystem. To LSK token holders, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this recent listing on Bitget. Do you believe it will have a significant impact on the token's value and the project's trajectory? How do you see this development fitting into Lisk's broader goals of making crypto and Web3 accessible to everyone? Let's discuss and share our insights
×
×
  • Create New...
us