Tax Questions


I'm just learning about trading and was trying to understand the 60/40 process by which commodities are taxed. From my understanding thus far, 60% of the net gains will be taxed at the 15% long-term capital gains rate and the other 40% taxed at the short-term rate which is dependent upon your tax bracket. So for example, let's say I net $60,000 one year. 60% of that, or $36,000, will be taxed at 15% equaling $5,400. The remaining 40%, $24.000, would fall into the 15% tax bracket (between $7,826 and $31,850) and pay the base tax of 782.50 plus $2,426.10 (($24,000-$7,826) x .15) equaling $3,208.60. For a grand total of $8,608.60. Am I understanding this correctly?

What I'm really curious about is the self-employment tax. To which portion of the 60/40 is it applied? Is it applied to the 40% only or to the total income?

Your help will be highly appreciated