CAPITAL GAINS /SPECULATION AND FILING OF TAX RETURNS
This article was published by Moneylife magazine on 18th March, 2007. With the easy availability of online trading facilities provided by various trading platforms such as ICICIDirect, Indiabulls, Kotak Mahindra, etc. the number of people joining the online trading bandwagon has gone up by leaps and bounds. Among those playing the markets online is a fair chunk of salaried employees. Many of these individuals have been introduced to futures and options. The retail trading volumes indicate that a lot of people are trying out this avenue to make money. This is all fine till it comes to generating the records one needs to provide the accountant to file the individual tax return. In my experience, I have always been unpleasantly surprised by the lack of awareness which individuals show when it comes to the income which needs to be disclosed and records maintained from short – long term capital gains and from speculation activities such as futures and options and intra-day trades. Most of t...