Considerations
You must be considered a "Trader" by the IRS to make this election. Please see Are you a Trader or Investor in the Tax Center section to determine if you can be considered a "Trader" by the IRS. Also, the IRS requires that you make the mark-to-market election a year in advance. That is, you must file the mark-to-market election for the current year with the prior year's tax return. If you miss this deadline, you have to wait until the next year to file the mark-to-market election. The Custom Reports section of the Tax Center allows you to generate an Income/Loss report for mark-to-market account - this report will supplement the IRS Form 4797 for tax filing. Mark-to-market (MTM) accounts will not include wash sale adjustments and will not be included on the Schedule D.