Hello, Great forum! I am doing a long shot here, but did anyone succeed claiming back witholding taxes after ADR instruments? I have Chinese, German, French, Swedish, Danish etc. and seemed easier to manage everything in USD. Canton GE if matters, first Swiss tax declaration ever. Thanks!
Only one ADR with dividends here: CRESY from Argentina. I get deducted between 4 and 13%, but it is not WHT. Rather a fee from Swissquote for their effort. I have not figured it out yet, but there seems to be a cap.
| dividend | fees |
|---|---|
| -1001 | 129.42 |
| -2157 | 140.01 |
| -2596 | 144.62 |
| -2655 | 150.04 |
| -4230 | 150.04 |
(slightly embarrassed moustachian)
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To update with more info, none of my EU ADR instruments are listed on ICTax, on my IBKR activity statement for some tickers I see WHT entries like:
- TICKER(ISIN) Cash Dividend USD 1234 - NL Tax, FR Tax, SE tax etc
Under “Fees” I see extra fees such as
- TICKER(ISIN) Choice Dividend USD 1234 Distribution Value - FEE
- TICKER(ISIN) Cash Dividend USD 1234 per Share - FEE
I am guessing the latter group are ADR fees. I managed to check the Chinese ones, they are in ICTax and since they are either with the VIE structure or ChinaConnect they should count in a similar way like US stocks.
Maybe few years back I made a mistake moving everything to ADR to only manage CHF and USD currencies on my broker account, so if anyone found it easier to hold EU stocks directly please let me know.
No problem getting back the tax. I use to own many stocks and ADR that are not in ICTax, I just send them a message with the data (Name and security ID) and they put it in, usually very fast. Here is a link to their contact form: Contact the FTA
ADR sponsors sometimes charge fees for just existing or for dividend forwarding. You cannot get those back.
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Thanks, they were super quick:
Dear Sir,
We have added the missing securities to the course listings:
ICTax - Income & Capital Taxes
If you should not find further products, funds, shares, bonds in the Course listings, please send an e-mail with the Valor or ISIN number to the following e-mail address: wefin.dvs@estv.admin.ch
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Wow, one day only. You won’t find another country in the world with such efficient tax offices. 
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It was me who was slow, I had to check ~90 ISINs from my 2024 activity report (pls don’t judge, over the years I started a lot of monitoring positions). So actually if you factor in the lunchtime…
Super positive experience over years with all CH administration, the immigration office in GE is super slow, but they also called back months after I sent my application and got the thing done eventually. Part of me thinks they are doing this well because they are very excited that I can be eventually taxed 
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