Yup... this from irs website...

"FDAP income is passive income such as interest, dividends, rents or royalties. This income is taxed at a flat 30% rate, unless a tax treaty specifies a lower rate."

Yup, also got qualified dividend income. 0% tax or somewhere in between, depending on the investment. Ideally the broker should deduct correctly. If over deduct 30% you do IRS filing to claim it back. IRS will send you a USD check or direct deposit to your US account.

Hi,

I am expecting a global economy downturn soon, so plan to enter the US market through UCITS in Switzerland or the UK. How do you guys choose between Captrader and Trandestation Global?

I find Tradestation global has cheaper commissions than captrader, but not sure about the service quality between the 2.

I am currently in HK and holds a HK Identity Card, but I am a Malaysian. I will return to Malaysia every year in December. Do you guys recommend me to open Captrader/Tradestation global account here at HK or in Malaysia?

Thanks for the advice.

To be legally correct, you should state that you are residing in HK during account opening with Tradestation Global. In reality, it does not make much difference. Both MY and HK have territorial tax system . This means no tax on foreign income. In addition, there is no capital gain tax. You should pay more attention if you move to a country with residential tax system which means your worldwide income (including capital gain) is taxed by your country of residence.

Regardless of your residence, you can fund Tradestation Global or IB with any bank account in the world (excluding sanctioned countries) as long as the bank account bears the same name as your brokerage account.
Hope this helps.

This is just my understanding.

It is up to each country to adopt territorial or residential tax system.
Basically all developed countries in the west have residential tax system. They hold a large chunk of the world's economy, therefore are not afraid of capital flight.
Developing or 3rd world countries would adopt territorial tax system to attract investment. This is the reason MY has this system.
HK and SG actually achieved developed status but they retain the territorial tax system to remain competitive.

Obviously CRS is most beneficial to the countries with residential tax system, to prevent their citizens from evading taxes.
But CRS would not be an incentive for a government to adopt the residential tax system. There's a reason why territorial tax system is needed in today's world.

If you are US Citizen, then yes there's capital gain tax but no dividend tax.

hyperzz forgot to ask you any idea if we used US brokerage like IB but we did not buy/hold US stocks, are we subjected to >60k US estate tax?

FSMONE ETF RSP offers USD ETF with just one off charge other than platform fee/management fee. Too bad is not available yet in Malaysia FSM.

dwRK, roarus, rjb123 hyperzz
I just found out I need to subscribe for rights need to qualify. Any idea how to go about it?

sorry ramjade... I dunno. let's wait for others to chime in