Financial Advisor and CPA for Active Traders
A flat-fee CPA and Financial Planner team that gives you personalized, holistic advice across your taxes and financial plan. We plan your trader status, mark-to-market election, wash sales and estimates, and file your returns.
What we handle for active traders
Your taxes turn on a status the IRS reads from your activity, an election with a hard deadline, and rules that reach across every account you own.
- 01
Whether you qualify as a trader
The IRS test has no trade count. You must seek profit from daily price moves, not dividends or appreciation, and trade substantially, regularly and continuously. Holding periods, frequency, dollar volume and time spent decide it; calling yourself a day trader does not.
- 02
The Section 475(f) election
Mark-to-market makes trading gains and losses ordinary, on Form 4797, with no $3,000 loss limit and no wash sales. It is due by the prior year’s unextended filing date, April 15, 2027 for 2027, and late elections are generally not allowed.
- 03
Wash sales across every account
A loss is disallowed if you buy substantially identical stock, or an option to buy it, within 30 days before or after the sale, including in your spouse’s account. Bought in an IRA or Roth IRA, the loss is lost for good. See how the wash-sale rule works.
- 04
Form 8949 that adds up
Brokers must report a wash sale only when both trades are in the same account with the same CUSIP. Your CPA reconciles every 1099-B against the others, so a loss one broker allowed is not claimed when a purchase at another disallows it.
- 05
Futures and index options at 60/40
Section 1256 contracts, such as regulated futures and options on a broad-based index like the S&P 500, are marked to market at year end and taxed 60% long-term and 40% short-term however long you held them. At the top rates that blends to 26.8% federal.
- 06
Estimated payments on trading gains
Nobody withholds on a trading gain. Estimates are due April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15. Pay 90% of this year’s tax or 100% of last year’s, or 110% if last year’s AGI topped $150,000. Gains that come late in the year can use the annualized method.
How Nino helps active traders
Most traders meet a preparer in March with a stack of 1099-Bs, after the year’s wash sales are locked in and the election deadline has passed. On an Advisor plan your CPA and Financial Planner see your accounts all year, so status, the election and estimates are decided while they still change the result.
Book a free consultation-
A plan in your first two weeks
Your CPA and Financial Planner set the tax reserve your trading needs, plan household spending and retirement around an income that swings, and revisit the plan every quarter as your gains change.
-
One return from every broker
Your CPA prepares your federal and state returns from all your 1099-Bs, with Schedule C for trading business expenses and Form 6781 for Section 1256 contracts. Nothing is filed until you approve it.
-
Open lots in one view
Nino’s AI software reads connected brokerage accounts read-only and shows each open lot with its short- or long-term status and unrealized gain or loss, so you can check a sale before you place it.
What should active traders decide before the year starts?
Four choices that set how this year’s trades are taxed, most of them before the first trade.
Whether to elect mark-to-market
Electing turns capital losses into ordinary losses with no $3,000 cap, but gains lose long-term rates and open positions are taxed at year end. Revoking takes a statement and a Form 3115, so treat it as a multi-year choice.
Which positions stay investments
A trader can keep long-term holdings outside the trading business, but only if they are identified as investments on the day you buy them, for example in a separate brokerage account. A mixed account blurs the line.
How long to hold
Gains on positions held one year or less are taxed as ordinary income, up to 37% federal in 2026, against 0%, 15% or 20% for long-term gains. Both can add the 3.8% net investment income tax above $200,000 of MAGI single or $250,000 joint.
Which losses to take by December 31
Losses offset gains first, then up to $3,000 of other income, and the rest carries forward. A December loss sale needs every account checked through late January. The tax-loss harvesting calculator estimates the saving.
Pick your plan
Every Advisor plan includes a CPA and Financial Planner team, federal and state tax filing, and our Ultra software.
Essential
- Everything in Ultra software, plus:
- A dedicated CPA and Financial Planner team for you
- Single-filer return, quarterly taxes included
- Retirement & equity planning
- Quarterly advisor access
- Rentals
- 0
- K-1s
- 0
- States
- 1
- Brokerage
- 3
Plus
Most Popular- Everything in Essential, plus:
- A dedicated CPA and Financial Planner team for you and your spouse
- Married filing jointly return, international coverage included
- One coordinated plan for both of you
- Quarterly and ad hoc advisor access
- Rentals
- 2
- K-1s
- 5
- States
- 3
- Brokerage
- 5
Premier
- Everything in Plus, plus:
- Business bookkeeping and tax filings, priced by complexity
- Joint or single return, complex international coverage
- Advanced equity & estate planning
- Priority advisor access
- Rentals
- 5
- K-1s
- 10
- States
- 5
- Brokerage
- 10
Software plans starting from $20 a month
Our AI financial assistant on its own, with a 7-day free trial.
Guides for active traders
Read up on these decisions, or run your own numbers.
What Is Tax-Loss Harvesting?
Selling an investment at a loss can offset taxable gains. Learn the steps, see an example, and avoid wash-sale mistakes.
Read guideWhat Is the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)?
NIIT is a 3.8% tax on certain investment income above income thresholds. See who pays, what counts, and how to calculate it.
Read guideTax and Financial Deadlines for 2026 and Early 2027
Every date from October 2026 to April 2027: estimated taxes, December 31 moves, tax forms, IRA and HSA deadlines, and the life-event clocks that run on their own.
Read guideTax Strategies for High Income Earners, by Income Type
Which tax strategies are open to you depends on where your income comes from. Here are the levers for wages, a business, real estate, and investments, and which to plan a year ahead.
Read guideTax-Loss Harvesting Calculator
Estimate the tax saved by harvesting losses, the $3,000 offset, and what carries forward.
Open calculator
More people we work with
See how our CPA and Financial Planner team helps people in situations like yours.