I have tried to apply for the lower tax rate on US income on the DEGIRO website and app. Because my bank account is based in Germany and does not align with my country of residency (Ireland) and tax residency (Ireland) DEGIRO will not accept my application? How can I apply for the lower tax rate for US income?
DEGIRO AnswerMany countries have a bilateral tax treaty with the United States that allowes investors to apply for a lower tax rate on dividend and interest income. You can therfore ask us to apply this lower tax treaty rate for your DEGIRO account. You can do this by completing the form ‘W-8BEN/ W-8BENE’, which you can find under ‘Tax information’ in your account settings.
In order to successfully apply for this ‘Relief at Source’ service, your country of residency, country of tax residency and bank account country should match (meaning, all should be registered in the same country). Whether you are entitled to the lower tax treaty rate depends on the information you provide and the applicable laws and regulations.
The lowered tax treaty rates on US income are applicable on a selected list of US products, the so called ‘green list’. This list covers almost all US products. There are only a few exceptions. On our platform you’re able to check the product detail page of each specific US product and see if the product is on the green list.