So would they charge the tax rate for domestic securities - even though VWRL is domiciled in Ireland and has an Irish ISIN?
Even if it were or is a domestic security, as I understand it, it is actually twice that (0.15%), split evenly between buyer and seller. Though professional and/or foreign participants seem to be exempt, so I‘m not sure if that will factor into market spreads as well.
Is the exchange rate the market rate, what is the spread?
If it is a Swiss exchange then you pay the Swiss stamp tax, this then twice, so for the VWRL Zurich = 0.15% (2 x 0.075%). This is how Cornertrader explained it to me.
At CT you can open a Euro sub-account (next to the CHF account).
Happy holidays to you
The VWRL is considered as foreign. ISIN is irish. @Claumustache the information from CT is wrong .
Correct, if you buy VWRL on the SIX with IB you won’t pay any stamp duty as the broker is ouside CH
For a friend’s situation of:
Question for those sticking to VWRL (vs. VT and the US-domiciled lot):
Are you “compensating” for the lack of small caps in their coverage, and with which EUR-based fund?
Preference is to keep it as simple as possible (and keep the number and cost of trades to the lowest level possible, until they reach more significant amounts and able to move elsewhere to a cheaper broker).
Thus I am even thinking to forego this extra SC ETF altogether, and accept the negative SMB load, for the start at least.
(micro bump)
Now that I think more of this (and effort),
I think I would rather select VWRP (basically an accumulating VWRL) for them, in order to minimize effort and any (forex?) fees involved with dividend payouts and reinvesting.
Thoughts?
I wonder if they will set up one in CHF like VWRA.SW to be traded at the SIX ? It could be interesting to buy it in CHF to Swissquote in order to avoid the dividend in USD and the conversion in CHF 
I wouldn’t - cause the small share of small caps isn’t going to make much of a difference.
Realistically absolutely no chance. Too tiny a market. And it’s already tradeable on SIX.
Distributing in CHF would basically mean setting up another (sub-) fund. A huge undertaking from a legal standpoint for very little discernible benefit.
Does anybody actually understand who actually converts the CHF (or EUR for that matter) to USD?
I understand that VWRL trades in CHF, and that the price reflects the underlying value of the shares. Ultimately, most of these shares trade in USD, so my CHF will have to get converted to USD to buy them.
Who does this conversion? (Who lists VWRL on SIX, is it Vanguard or some intermediary? How is the price set?) How do we know that it’s efficient? Is it better to buy the fund in USD, to avoid paying that person for the hidden conversion?
I suppose it should still be more efficient than Swissquote’s 1%, but it can’t hurt to know. Thanks!
You are either buying in CHF from a seller in CHF or you are buying from a market maker in CHF who bought it from a seller in CHF. No conversion unless they create new units.
@gsheert I realize this is years later but felt the need to reply as I was researching this topic and don’t think people did a good enough job explaining this. I think where you went wrong is thinking you could save money by buying the CHF version of VWRL.
I followed your logic all the way. In the case where USD to CHF is 1:1 and the price of the ETF is $100 or CHF100, if you initially invest CHF 1000 then you’d have 10 shares of that ETF.
If in 20 years the price of that ETF stays the same ($100) but the exchange rate is now 1 CHF = 2 USD, then when you sell your 10 shares, you’d get back your $1000. When you now convert back to CHF you’d have CHF 500, thus a 50% loss. But what you failed to understand is that the price of the CHF version would now be CHF 50 since the exchange rate is 2-1.
Option 1 - buy US etf:
have CHF (CHF1000), convert to USD ($1000), buy VWRL (10 shares), sell VWRL ($1000), convert back to CHF (CHF500)
Option 2 - buy Swiss version of etf:
Have CHF 1000, buy VWRL swiss (10 shares), sell VWRL (CHF 500) —> since the price in CHF is 50 versus the price in USD being 100.
This is more for others who are confused reading this thread. The only way you can actually protect against currency fluctuations is by choosing currency hedged ETFs, but that’s a different product which involves forward contracts implemented into the etf (I think)