Interactive Brokers Q&A [2024]

[Abs_max]

Yes.
Exactly 15%

But for me payment was in USD and also the tax deduction was in USD.

Which ETF do you own? Could it be due to exchange rate differences?

[almi]

@assemblyrequired

For me it was, yes

@Abs_max

Yes.
Exactly 15%

You are both right, I made a mistake when reading the statement file from IBKR. I thought the value in “Witholding tax” was already deducted from the “Dividends” value in the “Change in NAV” table. But actually the value in “Dividends” is before any WHT and I got paid out this “Dividends” amount minus the value in “Witholding tax” and this gives me also exactly 15%.

[assemblyrequired]

On the topic of dividends:

[assemblyrequired]

In case anybody was wondering why the currency exchange “Comm./Fees” column on trades with Auto FX shows “0.00” – the 0.03% fee is hidden in a slightly worse exchange rate:

For currency trades executed under the auto currency conversion service, IB will typically add or subtract (at its discretion) 0.03% to the exchange rate that would otherwise apply. Please note that IB does not separately charge a commission on these auto-conversion trades.

[ma0]

0.03% is coincidentally also the cost (in time) I pay to open ibkr twice to do the exchange manually.

[anneaun]

Quick question regarding cash settling and transfer of funds.

I wired yesterday CHF to IBKR that I could convert immediately to EUR. Now if I want to withdraw these EUR and it tells me (as I was expecting) that the cash balance in CHF is not yet settled, and will be available on Sep 3rd:

Do you know if then I can withdraw the EUR balance on Sep 3rd? Or will it then take another couple of days for the “EUR conversion” to settle?

[almi]

I have no personal experience with this, but what I’ve heard is that they are not happy with people using their platform for currency conversion only (i.e. deposit, exchange, withdraw).
Some got warnings when attempting this, but I don’t know whether that only comes after a few exchanges or at a certain amount etc…

[Dr.PI]

If you have margin account, you can already convert and withdraw today.

[anneaun]

No worries, I am fully aware of it.
I use my IBKR account once a year for such conversion and with a low two digits (kCHF) amount, they never complained about it.

@Dr.PI

If you have margin account, you can already convert and withdraw today.

Well, then if I can’t withdraw next Tuesday I still have this option. Thanks!

[ma0]

Question: why IBKR shows for example for CHDVD the closing price of yesterday right now (C167.04CHF) instead of the actual price, which should be 165.78CHF? Is it not yet defined “closed” even if it’s 18:40? It show the real price for a split second and then it goes to yesterday’s close. It’s weird and dangerous imho.

[Abs_max]

I see correct price

[ma0]

It might really be because of the time difference. Maybe SIX needs 1 hour to close all prices.

[Abs_max]

Could be. And sometimes you need to press refresh on IBKR to get latest price. They charge small fees for that

[assemblyrequired]

So I recently bought some VT. On the same day, I received a “Daily Trade Report”. The next day, I received a “Daily Activity Statement”, which included the same information (actually more, there was an additional Auto FX transaction listed) and also a cash report, performance summary, etc.

I also receive a “Monthly Activity Statement”.

I see that I can enable/disable each of those three statements in the delivery settings. What is your recommendation to keep? What would be the preferable document for the Swiss tax authorities, i.e. attaching it to my tax filing?

[Tony1337]

I have all of these deactivated and you need none of these.

You can create any report you need any time yourself.

For swiss tax authorities the activity report for the full year is what you want.

Some cantons like ZH accept an reduced report, like end of year NAV with holdings and dividends.

[anneaun]

It is up to you to define which notifications you want to receive. You can always generate those statements/reports manually if required.

Regarding which statements to provide the tax authorities, check this custom one:

Interactive Brokers: reports for tax declaration

I’ve probably written about before on the forum - but can’t find it at the moment. What I’m not doing is trying to use documents for U.S. tax purposes for my Swiss tax return. I am using a custom statement, generated via client portal (Menu → Reports /Tax Docs → Statements) Statement Type Activity Sections Account Information Bond Interest Broker Interest Dividends Financial Instrument Information Net Asset Value Open Positions Withholding Tax Section Configurations Profit and Loss …

You can always provide another report with more information, but it is good practice to provide them only what they need.

[assemblyrequired]

Thanks everybody.

I prefer to have something after I did a trade, so I’ll keep the Daily Activity statement, as it is complete WRT Auto FX compared to the Daily Trade Report, and opt out of the other to.

And then create a custom yearly report when doing my taxes.

[assemblyrequired]

I have a position of about 120k of a world ETF (1 title, FWRA) at Swissquote. I want to sell that ETF and switch to VT, but at IBKR. I could do this in two different ways:

1. Sell at Swissquote, which would cost me 12.– in fees and 180.– in stamp tax, then transfer the money to IBKR
2. Transfer the title to IBKR and sell it there, which costs me 50.– for the title transfer and probably 60.– for the sale (after switching to fixed pricing)

So we’re looking at 192.– vs. 110.–, with the cheaper option having to go through a title transfer, which makes me a bit uneasy thinking about it.

Is a title transfer something risky where the ETF could end up lost somewhere? What would you all do in my position?

[Tony1337]

You‘d be out of the market for a time until the money from Swissquote is at ibkr.

You don‘t want that on average.