How to report shorting stock & CFD's?

Hey, I'm trying to compile all of my trading into one excel document for a self assessment. I trade regular stocks, CFD's and also sometimes sell short or use leverage. How do I report these? 1) For example with shorting shares, when I open a short trade it's technically selling stock, then later you buy back at a lower price to close the trade. So what do I class as the disposal and what do I class as the acquisition? Technically speaking, if I open a short trade say on 01/01/2023, I am disposing of shares to open my position, then when I close it say on 04/01/2023 I am acquiring shares to pay back the shares borrowed? How do people normally report this to HMRC? When I open a short trade are we calling that the acquisition or disposal? 2) When trading with CFD's there isn't really a category for it on the self assessment, on my spreadsheet can I just write that it's a CFD? As from my understanding it doesn't fall under "listed shares and securities". 3) As for reporting of CFD's, it's not buying an underlying asset, it's just a contract for either party to pay the difference in price from when it's opened to when it's closed. That being said, say I open a BUY CFD for 100 shares in TSLA for £230/share. Am I writing it the same as buying stock on my spreadsheet, so for this the total acquisition would be £23,000 and the disposal worked out the same way? I've never reported via self assessment before, and I'm really overthinking how I need to report all this information. I use several brokerages and they give annual reports, but the information isn't really presented exactly how HMRC want it in some cases. I take it, that it's not OK for me to just attach a bunch of annual reports and just add/subtract the total profit/loss for each account for that financial year? Any help would be brilliant! Many thanks!

Hi 

We cannot comment on scenarios.  Please have a look at the guidance on futures at CG56100 - Futures: financial futures: contracts for differences onwards.

Thank you

Hey, Thanks, I’ve read that over before, so after reading again, am I correct in thinking as far as CFD’s go, I would only report the deposit amount and not the full value of the position? Then plus or minus any interest, fee’s and gains/losses? Also I can’t find any guidance for my question of shorting shares and which is classed as the disposal and which is classed as the acquisition? Given that shorting shares works the opposite way to buying in that regard. Just need to know how HMRC wants this to look on my evidence sheet for my self assessment.

Hi LiamB,
That is correct, for further guidance, please refer to:
HS284 Shares and Capital Gains Tax (2022) Updated 6 April 2023
Thank you.