Questions about options taxation in Japan licensed and foreign brokerages

Hi all,

Been looking into taxation in Japan on options recently.

JP licensed brokerage:

According to https://www.nomuraholdings.com/jp/investor/shareholders/tax/data/2022/tax_4_11.pdf I believe the following is true:

Long options:

Sell: 先物取引に係る雑所得 gain or loss

Exercise: 譲渡所得 and the option value is rolled into the cost basis or value (depending on call/put)

Expire: 先物取引に係る雑所得 loss (not sure about this)

Short options:

Buy: 先物取引に係る雑所得 gain or loss

Assigned: 譲渡所得 and the option value is rolled into the cost basis or value (depending on call/put)

Expire: 先物取引に係る雑所得 gain (not sure about this)

Foreign brokerages:

Long options:

Sell: 総合課税雑所得 gain or loss

Exercise: Not sure here – could be 総合課税雑所得 loss OR rolled into the basis/value like for JP brokers

Expire: 総合課税雑所得 loss (not sure)

Short options:

Buy: 総合課税雑所得 gain or loss

Assigned: Not sure here – could be 総合課税雑所得 loss OR rolled into the basis/value like for JP brokers

Expire: 総合課税雑所得 gain (not sure)

Notably, if exercising options in a foreign brokerage rolls the option value into the underlying and it's treated as CGT, you would be taxed at the separate rate (~20%) which could be a significant tax discount compared to the aggregate rate. But, I can't find any information one way or the other on this, for foreign brokerages.

Also I am unsure if this is the same for cash settled options. I would /guess/ that in both cases (JP broker and foreign broker) that expiration/exercise behave the same way and you just pay the separate rate for JP brokers or the aggregate rate for foreign brokers on the cash gain. But, I suppose it could be defined as getting rolled into the basis/value for the currency if it's denominated in a foreign currency, although I think this would be very convoluted. Does anyone know?

Thanks all.

by Edgeworth

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