UK Futures Tax Calculator,
close-out by close-out.

For most private investors, futures and IBKR CFDs are taxed as capital gains, not income. Futures use each close-out’s price difference less commissions; CFDs also include financing and dividend adjustments. HMRC matching applies to each position, and gains or losses go in SA108 Other property.

Capital Gains Tax, if you are investing rather than trading as a business. A future dealt on a recognised exchange is a chargeable asset for an individual (TCGA 1992 s.143), and HMRC says individuals are unlikely to be trading in futures. On an exchange HMRC does not recognise, the profit can be income instead.

No. Margin is a deposit held by the broker, not a price paid for the contract (CG56060). Opening a future costs nothing but commission, and the contract value never appears as proceeds or cost. Only the price difference and the commissions count.

Opening a short is the acquisition and buying it back is the disposal. In HMRC’s own example you sell 2 cocoa contracts at £1,900 and buy them back at £1,840: a £1,200 price difference less £10 commission is a £1,190 gain (CG56079). Long and short positions in one contract are matched separately.

Other property, assets and gains. Box 14 counts one disposal per contract, side and close-out day. Box 15 is the price difference of the close-outs that made money, box 16 the commissions plus the price difference of the ones that lost, box 17 the gains and box 19 the losses.

HMRC lists them in CG56120. CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX and Eurex are on the list, so most IBKR futures qualify. We also count the exchanges that took over listed ones, such as ICE Futures Europe. When your statement names any other exchange, the report shows a notice so you can check the treatment before you file.

Nothing is taxed until you close a position, so an open future has no gain or loss yet. The report lists it in Holdings with its pooled contract value and commission, outside Total Cost Basis. A position opened before your first statement is listed with no value. A contract cash-settled at expiry counts as a close-out on its expiry date.

No. The rules are the same for every contract size. The multiplier only changes the contract value, and the calculator reads it from IBKR’s Notional Value column, so a Micro E-mini and a full-size contract are worked out the same way.

No. Futures on UK gilts are exempt, like the gilts themselves (CG56090): the gain is not taxed and the loss cannot be claimed. The calculator recognises ICE’s gilt futures on your IBKR statement and leaves them out of the report.

Interactive Brokers, from the Activity Statement CSV. Upload it on its own or with files from your other brokers for one report. Deliveries are left out with a warning. IBKR CFDs and Forex CFDs get a section of their own. An exercised or assigned option on a future moves your position, and a warning quotes IBKR’s figure for you to add. Futures at other brokers and crypto perpetuals are not read from the file, but you can enter futures by hand on the edit page.

For most private investors, an IBKR CFD is a chargeable asset for Capital Gains Tax (CG56100). The price difference, commissions, daily financing and dividend adjustments are included in the gain or loss when the position closes, in SA108 Other property.

Daily CFD financing is included in the capital gain or loss when the position closes, rather than claimed as a separate income-tax interest expense (CG56101).

Forex CFDs are chargeable contracts, not spot currency holdings. The gain is the price difference, less commissions and adjusted for financing, converted to sterling at HMRC monthly rates; it is reported in the CFD section of SA108 Other property.

Yes, from Interactive Brokers. HMRC treats a CFD as a financial future (CG56100), so the same matching rules apply, but CFDs have a section of their own in the report. The daily financing and the dividend adjustments are part of the gain, not income, and count when you close the position. The CFDs chapter of our docs explains each step.

Futures are part of the Investor plan, together with options. On the free plan the report finds your futures but hides the figures until you upgrade; shares and crypto stay free up to 10 disposals a tax year.