We explain tax on foreign dividends in plain English, handle it correctly, and make sure you claim every relief you are entitled to, all at a fixed fee.
Tax on Foreign Dividends
Dividends from foreign shares are taxable in the UK, and are often also taxed abroad through withholding tax, so without care you can be taxed twice, once overseas and again in the UK.
We report your foreign dividends correctly, claim foreign tax credit relief for the tax withheld abroad, and use your dividend allowance, so your overseas income is taxed once, at the right rate, not twice.
Foreign dividends usually have tax withheld at source abroad, and double taxation relief lets you offset that against your UK tax, but only if it is claimed correctly, which many investors miss.
The Detail That Matters
Dividends from foreign shares are taxable in the UK, and are often also taxed abroad through withholding tax, so without care you can be taxed twice. Foreign Tax Credit Relief and the right treaty rate keep them taxed once, at the correct rate.
Foreign dividends are taxed like UK dividends, using your £500 dividend allowance and the 8.75%/33.75%/39.35% rates, converted to sterling. They must be reported on your Self Assessment foreign pages.
Many countries deduct withholding tax at source, for example the US withholds 30% by default, or 15% under the tax treaty if you file a W-8BEN. Only the treaty-rate tax is creditable in the UK.
We credit the tax withheld abroad against your UK tax on the same dividends, up to the UK amount, so you are not taxed twice. Where too much was withheld, we help reclaim the excess from the foreign country.
Filing the right forms (such as a W-8BEN for US shares) caps the foreign withholding at the treaty rate, reducing what is deducted and matching what is creditable here.
Investors with foreign shares are often taxed twice because the foreign tax credit is not claimed, or lose out because they never filed the treaty form and suffered withholding at 30% instead of 15%.
Key Figures
How We Help
We report your foreign dividends on your UK return, converted to sterling, and apply your dividend allowance and the right rates.
We claim credit for the tax withheld abroad against your UK tax, so you are not taxed twice on the same dividend.
Where a tax treaty limits the foreign withholding, we make sure the correct rate is applied and help reclaim any excess withheld.
All the forms, calculations and correspondence handled on your behalf, so you never have to decode HMRC's rules or sit on hold.
A clear fixed fee quoted after a free call, your position explained in plain English, and never a surprise bill.
We act quickly, and where earlier years are involved we put those right too, reclaiming refunds or minimising penalties.
Investors with foreign shares are often taxed twice because the foreign tax credit is not claimed, or the dividends are not reported at all. We report them correctly and relieve the foreign tax so you pay the right amount once.
Recent Client Outcome
An investor holding US shares was having 30% US withholding tax deducted and was unsure how to treat the dividends in the UK.
What we did. We reported the dividends in sterling, claimed Foreign Tax Credit Relief for the US tax withheld, applied the dividend allowance, and helped them file a W-8BEN to cap future withholding at 15%.
The outcome. They were taxed once overall rather than twice, future withholding dropped from 30% to 15%, and we set the position up to run correctly each year.
Claiming the credit and fixing the treaty rate stopped the double taxation and reduced what was withheld at source.
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