income tax on futures/options trading

[Soros wannabe...]

anyone knows if profits from futures/options trading by an individual are taxable here?  can't find anything on IRAS website

thanks vm!

[hmm, tricky]

I am not an expert but I believe the rules are roughly as follows:

Gains on investing or personal account trading activities are not taxable.

Gains where these activities form your main source of income (i.e. you are making a living as a freelance trader rather than doing a bit on the side) are taxable as income.

This may obviously have fuzzy boundaries.

[dividends only]

Only dividends are taxable here (at your personal marginal tax rate I believe).  Capital gains (as from futures, options, commodities, stocks...) are not taxable.

As for taxes on dividends, this applies only to dividend-income derived locally.  For instance, if you receive a dividend on a stock you own in the US, you pay no Singapore taxes (but you would pay US taxes, except for ADRs...)

From what I've been able to find out, a good tax-avoidance strategy is to buy ADRs in the US.  You can even buy Singaporean companies there (like Keppel).

[soros wannabe...]

thanks both!

my trading is definitely not my main source of income... not that gutsy (or foolish) to chuck in my day job. I knew divs are taxed while capital gains are not, but had no idea where futures/options fall in this type of (somewhat) artifical division