Self employed as a share trader?

[berlingo]

I quit my job two months ago and doing just share trading at the moment. Trading is done trough nominee account (not ISA). Capital gains so far are £500- £5000 a month. I believe I might make more than £10,900 this year. My trades consist of daily trading (sometimes the same shares multiple times a day), and some longer holding- week to 3-4 months. Do I have to register as self employed? What tax rate I have to pay after £10,900 capital gains?

[nikkisizer]

Hello berlingo,

You will need to register for self assessment with HMRC if you have to pay Capital Gains Tax.

CGT is payable if your taxable gains after deducting allowable losses for the tax year are less than your annual exempt amount.

Happy to help if required so if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

[nikkisizer]

Hello berlingo,

Apologies, my post should read:

CGT is payable if your taxable gains after deducting allowable losses for the tax year are MORE than your annual exempt amount.

[robbob]

There are additional circumstances where a tax return will also be required or hmrc will at a minimum need to be notified of details.

Sometimes you need to report to HMRC even if your gains are below the tax-free allowance. Send a tax return if:

you disposed of chargeable assets with an overall worth of more than 4 times the tax-free allowance - this works out as £43,600 for the 2013 to 2014 tax year
you have losses that you want to claim (if you’re not already registered for Self Assessment, you can write to HMRC instead)

https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax/wo ... eed-to-pay

Note hmrc are unlikely to agree that you are self employed if that would suit you tax wise, however if you applied to be self employed that application would likely be accepted and they may only later question the status when it suits them (Eg if you claimed losses or didn't declare capital gains)

Note the more you can trade within an ISA the better as the reporting headache for shares is quite high. Anything within an ISA is ignored from a reporting point of view.