I did some math (probably it’s not very accurate but thats what I got)
US based:
- L1WT : 7.5%
- L2WT : (30% but 15% is reclaimable) 15%
So the total distributed dividend is: (1-0.075)*(1-0.15) = 78.625% or 21.3% withheld tax
IE based:
- L1WT : 12.3%
- L2WT : 0%
So the total distributed IE dividends are: (1-0.123)*1 = 87.7% or 13.4% withheld tax
Now my portfolio using US-funds would have a lower TER ~0.08% instead of 0.2% in IE.
Assuming a dividend-yield of 2% p.a. the withheld tax in US would make for an extra 0.427% p.a. tax-expense while the IE-withheld tax would be 0.22% p.a.
If I sum this up I end up with:
- 0.507% total expense for US
- 0.42% total expense for IE
So IE-funds would still be slightly cheaper.
Now this is only aslong as your broker doesn’t qualify for W-8BEN otherwise the US-funds would perform better than IE. I just added my calculations here in case somebody else asks the same question as I did.