Futures trading taxation of the same stock in long term holding

F&O
1

Hi Friends,
I have a zerodha account and sometimes do futures trading in the same scrips which are in my holdings like HUL, ITC, Britannia, Nifty bees.
Long term portfolio is having some unreliased long term capital gains.

I just wanted to make sure any trading in futures will not make me liable for any long term capital gains tax arising from cash holdings right because 10% of that would be big. I am not selling my long term holdings and only positional trading in futures.

Sorry for asking a dumb question, but i dont know taxation

2

Income from Futures and Options trading is considered to be business income and you will be liable to pay taxes on it based on your tax slab. Varsity discusses about this topic in the Taxation for Traders chapter -

Non-speculative business income – Income from trading F&O (both intraday and overnight) on all the exchanges are considered as non-speculative business income as it has been specifically defined this way. F&O is also considered as non-speculative as these instruments are used for hedging and also for taking/giving delivery of the underlying contracts.

There is an article on @Quicko’s website about it as well. In case you are interested, this interpretation of income from F&O being treated as Non-speculative is from the Section 43(5) Clause (d) of the Income Tax Act (Which was inserted in Finance Act 2005) -

Definitions of certain terms relevant to income from profits and gains of business or profession.
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(5) “speculative transaction” means a transaction in which a contract for the purchase or sale of any commodity, including stocks and shares, is periodically or ultimately settled otherwise than by the actual delivery or transfer of the commodity or scrips:

Provided that for the purposes of this clause—

(a) a contract in respect of raw materials or merchandise entered into by a person in the course of his manufacturing or merchanting business to guard against loss through future price fluctuations in respect of his contracts for actual delivery of goods manufactured by him or merchandise sold by him; or

(b) a contract in respect of stocks and shares entered into by a dealer or investor therein to guard against loss in his holdings of stocks and shares through price fluctuations; or

(c) a contract entered into by a member of a forward market or a stock exchange in the course of any transaction in the nature of jobbing or arbitrage to guard against loss which may arise in the ordinary course of his business as such member; [or]

(d) an eligible transaction in respect of trading in derivatives referred to in clause (ac) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (42 of 1956) carried out in a recognised stock exchange; [or]

(e) an eligible transaction in respect of trading in commodity derivatives carried out in a recognised association, which is chargeable to commodities transaction tax under Chapter VII of the Finance Act, 2013 (17 of 2013),

shall not be deemed to be a speculative transaction.

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