Hi all.

I have a question regarding the first post, on the withholding tax "refund":



Is it still true, as of now, that 50% of the withholding tax can be claimed back from the US IRS by filling out the 1040NR form? Has anyone succeeded in doing so?

@rjb123 (Experimenting with forum feature. Others can help answer as well. )

As a reference, another link (https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/21779/buy-us-etf-as-foreigner-a-bad-idea) also claims that partial refund of the withholding tax is possible, although the source didn't mention that it's 50% of that amount.

Thanks for the kind help.

rjb123. I think this time it should be correct.

Hi Ramjade. So, by filling income tax I can have partial "refund" from the 30% dividend paid? How much of refund can it be? Is it 50% of the withholding tax as claimed in the first post?

Why would my life be more difficult?

I have heard about FATCA but not quite sure about its impact to us NRAs. Can you elaborate more on this?

Hi all.

I have some questions with the concerns of messing up with the US government. I understand about the concern especially with the CRS (common reporting standards) being adopted in many countries these days.

As for tax no., I believe the US tax no. id officially called TIN or Tax Identification No. As far as I know, even a TIN is required when you fill up the W-8BEN form, which concerns with the 30% WHT. So, every NRA like us who invest directly in the NYSE (dividend-paying stocks or ETFs) will be required to fill up the W-8BEN form even if we don't ask for the "50% WHT refund".

So, is Ramjade trying to say that one should not even invest in the NYSE directly? (since you already need to file a tax form with a TIN on your W-8BEN)

Referring to the bolded part, pay the tax and try to claim it back? Isn't that what I am asking here and you are against it? Now you are advocating it here? Or a typo?

As for those who suggest to buy funds try UCITS, I am aware of the benefits.

Just one concern, most USD-denominated UCITS are traded on LSE and SIX. And their markets are less liquid than NYSE. Can anyone recommend brokers in Singapore or Malaysia who deal with the Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS on LSE or the iShares S&P 500 UCITS (Accumulating class, USD-denominated) on either LSE/SIX?

I am a long-term investor, so Interactive Broker is not suitable for me as I don't have 100k USD anytime soon, nor do I want to pay 10 USD per month for commission. I am looking for something similar to TD Ameritrade, one-off commission, and can last forever. It's kind of unfortunate that TD Ameritrade only offers trading in US markets.

Thanks for the help, everyone.

Ok, please check the facts below:

1. TIN is NOT the same as US Income Tax No.

2. You need a TIN when filling up the W-8BENN form, which is used to avoid paying CGT to the US since we are NRAs. (This is the form required for all of us to fill up when we decide to trade directly on the US market.)

3. You need a US Income Tax no. when filling up the 1040NR form to claim back the 30% WHT which is NOT possible for Malaysians since there is no tax treaty with the US. (So, basically the first post of the thread is wrong, for Malaysian investors, that is. It is not possible to claim back ANY portion of the 30% WHT for us NRAs without tax treaty of any kind with the US, correct?)

Please check the above 3 facts.

And so there is NO issue trading directly on NYSE, the TIN is NOT an issue at all. I just keep paying the 30% WHT to the US government while trading with my broker on TD Ameritrade. There is no worries about FATCA even though I trade with TD, as long as I don't mess up with the US gov by claiming ANY portion of the 30% WHT back.

The only concern here is claiming back ANY portion of the 30% WHT. If I do so, I mess up with the US gov because I will have a US income tax no by then and have to deal with FATCA.

If however, I choose to keep paying the 30% WHT (which means I only fill up the W-8BEN form), I will have no issues messing up with FATC/US gov etc., even though I will be required to have a TIN.

In short, no worries about trading NYSE on TD Ameritrade TOS platform, as long as I don't claim back ANY portion of the 30% WHT.

Correct?

As for brokers' choice (if I choose not to trade with US brokers):

I am a long-term trader who wants to save on commission and looking for platforms without ongoing charges of any kind, including custody fees, inactivity fees etc.

One single trade would be 7000-10000 USD for me (of course if the commission is low enough to account for less than 1% of the trade amt, then I will go for a lower trade amount, maybe 3-5k USD)

I know IB is a stupid choice for me, and I am aware of the whitelabels. But I don't know which is good?

I am looking for investing in USD-denominated accumulating class (so no dividend handling charges) UK/Swiss ETF (Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS or iShares S&P 500 UCITS)

I know about Captrader and TradeStation. But Captrader only trades in Euro (I prefer USD shares, so that currency is my own liability) and I can't tell if Tradestation trades in LSE/SIX (can't find the market info on their official page. I only know they trade in the "US and worldwide" https://www.tradestation.com/about/)

I also looked up eToro, but they don't have accumulating class UCITS, only a distributing one. Moreoever, it is traded in GBP, not USD https://www.etoro.com/markets/iusa.l

Any good suggestion? Or I have to relax my requirement?

Thanks for the help everyone.

As for ETF requirement,

If an accumulating class is not possible, please suggest brokers with dividend reinvestment plans but NO dividend handling charges or any kind of charges. TQ

Now I have a clearer view.

Regarding Captrader and Tradestation, I am fine with both brokers and the fees seem low.

The thing is, I don't know how much is the commission charges for USD-denominated ETF on LSE and SIX?

The brokers only give GBP and euros for trade commissions in LSE and SIX respectively.

Does that mean that I need to pay the commissions in pounds or euros to buy USD-denominated UCITS?

Thanks for the help everyone.

Thanks. Just want to confirm with you guys. Apart from the trade commissions, are there other charges like stamp duty/clearing fees etc. if I buy USD-denominated UCITS on LSE/SIX?

Also, for the USD UCITS I purchase through Captrader/Tradestation global, will they will held under a central depository system (which is under my name) or will it be held in the form of a custody account (which means Captrader/Tradestation hold the shares on behalf of me).

And if it happens to be a custody account, what happens if Captrader/Tradestation global go bankrupt? Will all my money be gone?

(I risk-spreading strategy I can think of is to open both Captrader and Tradestation account to spread my risk in case one broker go bust. Also, I will invest some of my money directly in US ETF through TD Ameritrade to further spread my liquidity risk. So, basically, don't put all your eggs in one basket.)

Any other risk-spreading strategy to share?

I am new to foreign brokerage, sorry for the nuisance. Thanks again for the help.

I am hoping for a similar service for UCITS on european exchanges.

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.

Ok, so I checked Tradestation global and it says I need to fulfill these conditions:




The 2nd one does not apply to me though. So, how to open an account with them then?

And for my case, can I just assume that I am a Malaysian opening an account although I have a HKID and will stay in HK for quite some time (won't stay for long at most 4-5 years).

But I have enough HKD to convert into USD and it can be done easily here in HK.

Maybe I shall open an account in Malaysia.

Can someone share the process of opening an account at Tradestation Global in Malaysia and their experience? Thanks and much appreciated.

Regarding the bold part, that means I can fund my account in HKD? And Tradestation global will convert it to USD for me internally? What will be the rate then? Spot rate? Is the rate favourable? Or I need to convert HKD to USD on my own and deposit them?

I guess I will upload my Malaysia IC to avoid other unnecessary issues.

Yes, but wouldn't that mean I open an account with IBKR instead of Tradestation global?

Or you are trying to say that I can open an account with tradestation global but deposit my money through IBKR and it will be moved to my tradestation global account?

Thanks for the help everyone.

Successfully registered for Trasestation Global. But I now have issue with fundings.

I currently have HKD Fixed Deposit which will mature in about one month but I still don't want to put all of them into Tradestation/IBKR.

My plan is to enter the market when it has fallen a lot (magnitudes comparable to financial crisis, like 20-30% or even more). So, basically I am waiting for market to crash.

Is it okay to leave my IBKR/TG account untouch (without any deposit) for say 6 months-1 year or even more?

Thanks for the help.

My FD of about 10k HKD will due in about one month for now. So, can they wait for 1 month?

And what do you mean by withdraw after that? That means just deposit 1k USD and withdraw immediately? Then what's the point of deposit? Sounds funny.

Noted. Thanks.

I need some help here.

I tried login to paper account but failed.



Is it because I have not deposited any money in my account?

I thought paper account is there for us to try out the portal, not serious trading, so shouldn't it be available even though one hasn't deposited his/her money.

This is what I got if I login through the live account. Can't even look up to any UCITS or any stock quotes.

Oh, need to apply to open it. I thought it comes together with the IBKR account once opened. Sorry, my bad.

One question. How does IBKR know we trade with tradestation instead of IBKR itself. I am afraid of being charged 10 USD every month even though I haven't deposited any money yet. Is there a way to check that?

Thanks guys.

Just one thing. Is it ok if I deposit less than 1000 USD for the first time in my IBKR/Tradestation account.

I need to deposit fund in order to get thing start but as mentioned earlier, FD due next month. Can I place smaller amount first?

Thanks for the info.

Apparently, they disconnect me from the trading system.





This post has been edited by TOS: Oct 9 2019, 08:11 PM