It would be possible to, e.g., buy shares monthly at IBKR and rarely (maybe once a year or not even that) transfer some of them to a Swiss broker.
You can hold US-domiciled ETFs at Swiss brokers, i.e., the ETF domicile/regulation is a completely separate question.
I wouldn’t trade anyway if you already have IB, just transfer e.g. half of your holdings to diversify. The dividends can either be transferred back to IB (afaik costs 2 CHF) or reinvested using the trading credits.
AFAIK postfinance still allows trading US ETFs, and as other said even if that was an issue, you can anyway hold a US ETF position without any trouble. And still even if that was an issue (it isn’t so far), if you do worry about diversification you might not be far from the qualified investor threshold as well (2M wealth iirc).
It is true though that the (recoverable) withholding will be 30% instead of 15% but that’s likely a tiny opportunity cost in the end (esp. if you have enough assets that you worry about diversification).
(but we’re getting really offtopic here 
)
I did the transfer because I want some free chocolate. (check Free Shareholder Swag in CH)
Well, turns out it’s not free. It costs me 90 franks.
You know where the free chocolate is 
Can you clarify? I thought since PF is not a Qualified Intermediary you are not able to get back the whole 30%?
What do you mean? Isn’t it US withholding with a standard swiss broker? I’d be surprised if it doesn’t work (but don’t have direct experience).
I read in another thread that Postfinance is not a Qualified Intermediary and that 15% can be claimed back with DA-1 and the remaining only by filling a direct form to the IRS. That’s why I assumed it does not make sense to hold US domiciled ETFs at PF.
I’d be very interested hearing more about your experience:
Who billed the 90 francs? Was it for the transfer of securities or for the transfer of chocolate?
Was it to Swissquote or PF?
How much time did it take for the securities transfer?
What was the process? Was it easy?
Post Finance
Neither. It’s for the e-trading account
I forget the time and process detail since it was very easy.
Thank you for the details!
W-8BEN on your own & 30% withhold - #31 by OogieBoogie says it’s actually QI. (I’d personally be surprised if such a big player like postfinance wouldn’t do it properly)
Well, Postfinance e-trading is Swissquote inside anyway. Which is QI. I suspect because of its position Postfinance itself is not allowed to do any kind of trading, even for customers.
So did I get this right, it’s possible to buy VT at IBKR, then transfer it to Switzerland, and still reclaim full withholding tax?
That would be nice easter news indeed 
Postfinance charged me CHF 100 to transfer a security to IB if I remember correctly.
from PF’s website:
Physical securities I suppose are in paper form. I was surprised in another thread that it meant something else, but in another context (options).
Am I Right?
Yes, this time it means in paper form 
@ma0 can you please clarify:
If I want to transfer 10 units of VUSA from PF to IBKR, is that 1 security or 10 ?
aka 1 * 107.7 chf or 10 * 107 ?
Thanks !
One security = one position.
I called PF yesterday. They acknowlwdged PF= SwissQuote, but they said they are not a QI, and they cannot do W8BEN.
Does anyone have PF? Were you able to get the whole 30% witholding tax back? Were you abld to fill the w8-ben?
Apparently one can file a W-8BEN with PF.
