US Bond ETFs and withholding tax

Taxes
1

Im trying to find out the tax situation concerning owning US registered bond funds or ETFs through a Swiss broker.

As far as I am aware for US stocks there is a dividend withholding of 15% (that can be reimbursed involving Swiss bureaucracy that I like to avoid).
I’m not sure if something similar would happen concerning the payouts of bond funds/ETFs - for instance SCHZ.
I understand the tax situation depends a lot on the bond type, but I’m not sure if this taxed by withholding or through US income tax (which would not be applicable to me as EU citizen).
Maybe someone can shine a light on it, I’m by no means a tax expert…

Edit: I just saw it might have been better at place in the ‘Taxes’ area, sorry if its in the wrong place.

2

Hello there,

I am also interested in the same topic. Have you found anything about it?

3

I used to hold a US bond ETF. In practice the withholding was much lower than 15% for distributions (and I would get it back through DA-1 anyway).

4

You mean by completing your tax-return correctly? It’s about one additional line in the tax software. If you’re too lazy, your loss.

Depends on what the bond pays out. You can check this all online.

Interest is generally 0% withholding, but some funds pay out cap-gains (also 0 withholding AND 0 swiss tax), return of capital, etc. Each of these is processed separately, but most categories are 0%.