Swiss is 35%😁

Nope, for Swiss stocks, IBKR will withhold 35% of dividends, you need to submit a refund to Swiss Federal Tax Administration to request for the 20% refund (i.e. 15% tax treatment) by filling up Form 60.

https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/en/home/inte...f/malaysia.html

You may send the form to FTA once every 3 years (include past 3 years of withholding tax) and you need to visit the local LHDN/IRB office to ask for verification that you are a Malaysia tax resident.

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For Taiwanese stocks like TSMC, default withholding tax rate by IBKR is 21%, you may however claim back 8.5% (i.e. get the 12.5% tax treatment) by writing to the specific local tax office in Taiwan (e.g. Hsinchu 新竹 for TSMC or UMC) and claim back the tax from them.

 

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so if I buy BABA I should get 90% of the dividend. so far what I posted correct?

if it's $BABA it's the same ole 30% WHT? while if it's HK Baba (9988.HK) it's 10% WHT?

got it. I was just confused for a moment because of the post from 2021 that said ibkr is smart enough to apply the correct withholding rate according to our malaysian tax status!

if it's $BABA it's the same ole 30% WHT? while if it's HK Baba (9988.HK) it's 10% WHT?

I’m also confused. But no. I think it’s 10% regardless adr or sehk. Because that’s the standard wht rate for China for everyone

They are smart enough. Form my experience. Canada, Europe, US all with hold correctly.

Erm. Not sure what you mean by "actively investing". I am a very passive investor, hardly changing anything in my portfolio. I remain invested in Nestle, Novartis (through US ADR) and Roche at the moment. They help me weather the current storm well. Will add more in the future when I have more cash coming in.

You don't need a Swiss bank account to transfer CHF funds if you use IBKR. Just use Wise to first convert the money you have (USD, SGD, MYR, HKD etc.) to CHF and store it in your Wise CHF currency balance, then send the money to IBKR's Swiss bank account (a Credit Suisse account) via the usual steps (initiate a deposit notification at IB first, then transfer the money from your CHF currency balance to the designated Credit Suisse account). You should receive your money and see it reflected in your IB currency balance under an hour. From there, you can buy stocks etc. with the CHF funds deposited. Note Wise will charge you 0.5 CHF for the outbound transfer to IB's Credit Suisse account. That's the only fee involved, aside from any forex spread/charges earlier from your USD/SGD/MYR/HKD conversion to CHF.

Add-on, just saw Ramjade's post: you can use IB's own FX conversion if you already deposited SGD/USD/HKD in IB. Note that there is no SGD/CHF or CHF/SGD currency pair, so you will have to go through at least 2 conversions from SGD to CHF, e.g. SGD -> USD -> CHF. I am not sure if the charges are the same as Wise, but the total cost should be comparable.

The unfavourable exchange rates kicks in when you want to reclaim your Swiss WHT. As SNB pays out your reclaimed money in CHF, you need to have a bank account which can receive CHF. I tried out Dukascopy the other day but the charges are ridiculous... So, I just plan to use CIMB SG to receive the inward remittance. The extra cost is the currency conversion from CHF to SGD which has a spread of about 1.1% (for CIMB SG). But the good thing is there are no minimum charges for the inward telegraphic transfer, so you get to receive nearly all the funds refunded.

But that’s against what you said re: Swiss stock. Because due to our tax treaty with swiss the correct wht rate is 15% not 35%…

Sorry not meant to be confrontational just not a lot of clarity on ADRs wht for Non resident aliens

Last I saw was swiss tax is 35%. I don't think we have treaty with swiss.

4. Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of Switzerland to a resident of Malaysia may be taxed in Switzerland, and according to the law of Switzerland, but the tax so charged shall not exceed: (a) 5 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends if the recipient is a company (excluding partnership) which holds directly at least 25 percent of the capital of the company paying the dividends; (b) in all other cases, 15 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends.

Hi, I lurked around and found this old post as well.

reason I am asking so many questions is because like you, I intend to purchase a swiss stock for the long term but using ADRs. in my case, Nestle ADR (NSRGY).

seeing your old post, have you gone thru the wht claim process of your novartis ADR? did you have to pay any fees other than postage to send documents to Swiss tax office? and what other proof is required other than just LHDN certifying you were a malaysian tax resident? did you need to ask IBKR to furnish a special tax form?

thanks for your response

Reclaimed amount:

ROG = 9.3*(0.2) = 1.86 CHF
NESN = 2.8*(0.2)*4 = 2.24 CHF
Total = 4.1 CHF (approx 18.36 MYR)

Cost:
Petrol from BW house to LHDN office and back, assume 6.4L/100 km efficiency, 2.05 MYR per liter, journey to and back = 9.1 km*2 = 20 km
-> fuel cost = 2.63 MYR 

Postage fee -> 7.20 MYR for <= 20g mail to Switzerland

Total cost = 10.2 (after round up fuel cost to 3 MYR)

Try not to purchase Level 1 ADRs which are traded OTC like NSRGY. OTC markets are illiquid during times of crisis and may trade at a huge discount to the underlying parent share in SIX. I will advise you to buy Nestle shares on SIX/European ECNs directly on IBKR. You save the ADR dividend handling fees also.

If you search "Swiss" in this thread you will find a lot of useful posts on reclaiming Swiss dividend taxes. https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=Sear...posts&hl=&st=50

E.g. https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...#entry103087454

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...#entry102601156

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...#entry103923478

The above posts will answer your questions...

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I sold my Novartis ADR last year after the Sandoz spin-off, and given my remaining positions in Nestle and Roche are relatively small, the reclaimed money is relatively small compared to the amount of effort I have to put in. Below is a calculation I did last year (or the year before, can't remember), to give you a sense of the magnitude of returns over the efforts put in to reclaim your Swiss tax...
We are not multi-billion dollar mutual funds... just poor retail investors...

wow! thanks. and very detailed writeups in the links which I will study. yes I am kinda put off investing in swiss stock especially as they only refund in CHF which is a headache (I have a DBS multi acct). only reason is due to I like nestle. investing in the malaysia nestle not the same...

I guess I should just allocate the fund for nestle into more BRK B then...

PS: I did not know about level 1 ADR problems....before your reply I had just purchased tencent adr which is OTC. I noticed that the commision fee was relatively higher (1.5 bp vs less than 0.8 bp for other US stocks).but I didnt notice any liquidity or large spreads when I was buying.

Nope, for Swiss stocks, IBKR will withhold 35% of dividends, you need to submit a refund to Swiss Federal Tax Administration to request for the 20% refund (i.e. 15% tax treatment) by filling up Form 60.

https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/en/home/inte...f/malaysia.html

You may send the form to FTA once every 3 years (include past 3 years of withholding tax) and you need to visit the local LHDN/IRB office to ask for verification that you are a Malaysia tax resident.

---------------------------

For Taiwanese stocks like TSMC, default withholding tax rate by IBKR is 21%, you may however claim back 8.5% (i.e. get the 12.5% tax treatment) by writing to the specific local tax office in Taiwan (e.g. Hsinchu 新竹 for TSMC or UMC) and claim back the tax from them.

 

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For China A- and H-shares, there will be 10% WHT automatically deducted when you receive the dividends.

Meaning the tax office of swiss will refund the 20% sekali gus every 3 years?

Hi all, I am new to investing, if I want to dca cspx through ibkr monthly RM 500. Is it a right strategy?

Will I ended up paying too much on the platform and brokerage fees etc? Thank you

Do I still need a CIMB SG bank account? Is it better to have one (or any other offshore account) over Wise, especially for large amounts?

I tried signing up to CIMB SG but it says I need Singpass, which I don't have, since I don't live in Singapore.