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Global tax

Understanding global tax

To help you understand your tax obligations when trading international securities, we’ve outlined the eligibility criteria and important information you need to know before you start trading.

So we can give you access to trade international shares, we may need to verify some information from you in order to meet our global tax obligations. 

Please seek your own tax advice in relation to your personal circumstances. nabtrade does not provide tax advice for domestic or international share trading, foreign exchange or foreign income.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to transact on international markets you will need to meet the following eligibility criteria:

All account holders

  • All account holders and associated parties including trustees, beneficiaries, directors and controlling persons must be Australian residents for tax purposes and cannot be a resident for tax purposes of any other country.
  • All account holders must reside in Australia with both residential and mailing addresses for all accounts being in Australia

Individual and joint applicants

  • All individual and joint applicants must provide their current Australian Passport or Australian Driver's Licence
  • Account holders must provide Tax File Numbers or exemption codes, along with ABNs (if applicable).

Companies and trusts

For most applicants, if you meet these criteria nabtrade is able to provide Double Taxation Treaty benefits for dividend payments for US listed securities without asking you to fill out additional tax forms.

Please note, all non-individual applicants still need to fill out the US Withholding Tax Treaty Statement (PDF 443KB).

As long as your circumstances do not change we will not ask you to fill out additional documentation periodically.

International tax rates

nabtrade is not a registered tax agent and does not provide tax advice. For more information on the tax treatment of international shares please consult a registered tax agent. The following information may be of use to you and your tax agent.

Please seek your own tax advice in relation to what the above means for your personal circumstances.

An amount of tax will be withheld in the countries of origin on any income repatriated offshore (to Australia) as per the following table:

Jurisdiction Withholding tax rate
USA 15%
UK 0%
Germany 26.375%
Hong Kong 0%

nabtrade does not support reclaims of tax withheld in each of these countries.

In the case of Germany, as the tax withheld is more than the double taxation treaty rate, there may be a tax leakage, (i.e. inability to claim withholding tax in Australia) depending on your circumstances.

Please note that different withholding tax rates may apply if the issuer country is different from the jurisdiction of listing.

Withholding Tax Rates are subject to change from time to time.