How to calculate F&O Turnover

Income Tax Income from Business or Profession
1

Are you trading in Futures and Options but confused about Turnover calculation?

Futures and options are derivatives, that derive their value from an underlying asset. While the futures is a contract to buy or sell on a future date, the options allow an investor to protect their investment against fluctuating prices.

Turnover basically means the total sales made by a person in a particular time frame. Turnover is calculated to get a brief idea of the business and if turnover exceeds certain threshold limits then a tax audit is also applicable.

Unlike a regular business, Futures, and options are settled by paying the differential amounts without the actual delivery. Therefore the turnover calculation is quite different from the regular calculation.

To calculate the turnover, the difference of the purchase price and the sales price is taken. The negative signs are ignored and you need to sum up all the differences, which is called Absolute Profit and Loss and is also considered the turnover.

Let’s say Mr. Dave is involved in trading in Futures and Options Contracts. He has entered into some transactions. The details of the transactions entered by him are as follows:

Instance 1: Futures Transactions

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In the above case, though there is a loss of ₹2,00,000, for the purpose of calculating turnover the negative is ignored and the loss is added to profits.

Instance 2: Options Transactions

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In the above case also the negatives of losses are ignored for calculating turnover and are added to profit.

Have questions? Shoot ‘em here!!

5

If a future contract is sold on the 10th day from the date of buying, and for 9 days if it is appearing as loss. while computing turnover, do we need to calculate 2 days loss also or only profit on the date of sale.pls advise

6

Hi @Vik

When calculating turnover for a future contract, it is important to consider the realized profit and loss (P&L).

In your scenario, if the contract is sold on the 10th day from the date of buying and has appeared as a loss for 9 days, you should include both the realised loss and profit on the date of sale in the turnover calculation.

For example, you have a realised loss of ₹100 and profit of ₹300, then after calculation your turnover would be ₹400, and your Net P&L would be ₹200.

Hope it helps.

7

In future contract if person has bought on 1st Jan at Rs 100 and sold on 6th Jan at 110. While on 2nd jan, jan 3rd, 4th jan 5th Jan, the closing price was 95,96, 97,98 respectively… then what would be turnover for tax purpose? Kindly advise… thankyou

8

@Vik

In this stated case, the turnover would be realized profit that is ₹10 (₹110 - ₹100). The closing price mentioned by you on the 2nd - 5th Jan are the unrealized losses which are not considered for the calculation of turnover

Here, in your previous scenario as well the losses for 9 days has to be ignored as they’re not realized and the 10th day realized profit needs to be considered.

Read more about Trading Turnover Calculation for Trading Income - Learn by Quicko.

Hope this clarifies your query.

9

F&o just did few trades and total loss is 9k. Total options turnover is less than 1 lakhs. My basic income is below 2.5 lakhs. So did i need to file itr 3 returns ?

10

Hi @Surresh

Yes, you will be required to file ITR 3 since you will be reporting F&O & Intraday income. in your ITR.

11

Is there any change in method of calculating turnover in case of option trading for the purpose of audit requirements ?
How to calculate the trunk over in option trading ?

12

Hi @vsvdevan

As per the latest guidelines by ICAI, the turnover is calculated as the absolute profit/loss in case of both, futures & options. Here’s a read on turnover calculation for F&O for your reference.