Just to add to the confusion, the Swiss brokers will always deduct 30%, but, depending on the circumstance, you may only be able to reclaim half of it. That happens if the broker acted against your best interest and paid the other half to the US instead of Switzerland (happened to me, luckily just a few hundred francs lost).
Why would broker act not in client’s interest ?
If W8BEN is filled then only 15%WHT is withheld in US.
I doubt there was any malice. Some Swiss brokers, at least in the past, weren’t IRS qualified intermediaries, in which case they couldn’t offer W-8 BEN and were required to always deduct 30% US WHT. Or maybe there was a mistake or miscommunication regarding W-8 BEN. I would also not be surprised if some broker support requests related to US WHT aren’t handled correctly.
Normally you can see the difference on the transaction documents. It should appear as a line for 15% and another line for 15%. Not as a single line for 30%.
Yes, exactly. I didn’t know that, and only figured it out when my tax refund got rejected. There was no way to retroactively fix it, unfortunately.