World portfolio using UCITS ETFs: discussion [2025]

Investing / Portfolios
237

How do you folks sort out the WHT for those non-US-domiciled (i.e. IE/LU) ETFs in the tax filing?
I suppose all underlyings have their own rates (due to different countries), so is it complicated or same as with US-dom (absolute amounts end up in DA-1)?

238

You don‘t. There is no way to do that.

Finpension is doing something with US dividends (I think it was just for US) in ex-US domiciled. But I don‘t know if they are successful and tax offices accept that?

I wouldnt count on it working in the future.

Also US domiciled ex-US funds aren‘t better tax-wise for ex-US stocks if you get DA-1. They lose taxes on lvl1 that are unrecoverable for us.
US residens can get foreign tax credits.

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239

IE UCITS ETFs are not DA 1 relevant as there is no WHT at fund level and hence nothing to claim back.

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240

I would say that they are clearly worse tax-wise as 15% of the dividends go to the US for no reason.

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241

Certainly from a state side perspective. Less taxes for Switzerland and more for uncle Sam. And especially during these times, less taxes for the US is probably preferable


Not for you as an individual though (if you get full DA-1)

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242

UBS has dropped the TER of its MSCI World ETF from 0.10% to 0.06%.
I think that makes it by far the cheapest option for a UCITS ETF and one of the cheapest world wide!

When it comes to index tracking difference it seems fairly low(if you ignore the 1% in its first year): UBS ETF (IE) MSCI World UCITS ETF (USD) A-dis (IE00B7KQ7B66) - ETF Tracking Differences and Performance

SPDR tracking diff is even lower though: SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF (IE00BFY0GT14) - ETF Tracking Differences and Performance
Not sure about the reasons behind it. Perhaps the AUM and/or the much higher TER in the previous years. (I think the UBS one had 0.30% TER acouple of years ago)

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243

You need to account for following

  • a need for EM ETF
  • Reinvestment of dividends and fx related to it

But I think even with that WRDUSY + EM will be cheapest for CHF investors. In fact that is what I use as my world ETF strategy now.

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244

Sure if you want it. The index that it tracks doesn’t include EM though.

An Acc version exists: isin=IE00BD4TXV59

Indeed.

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That one is only traded in USD though. Only useful for IBKR but for SWQ/Saxo not so much.

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246

Correct.
Applying 0.95%(SQ FX fee) to dividends will add something like 0.016% total cost. Still, far less than the competition.
Some people just like receiving dividends anyway (not me :slight_smile: )

Moreover, combining it with e.g. XMME for EM if you are into this, you get a combined TER of ~0.07%