Which is the best bank in TW to open an account for buying stocks as an American?

Business Money
1

I’m new to stocks and want to make some small, low risk investments. From what I’ve seen here, it’s annoying for Americans to buy stocks here through local banks. Any recommendations?

2

You could open an account with Interactive Brokers, they are open to Taiwan residents, and given they are American you should be able to trust them.

5 Likes
3

I tried but I was denied. Something about them requiring experience.

4

I’ve heard a lot of banks turn down Americans trying to open this kind of account because of our tax rules. I’d prefer to use a local bank.

5

Did you try to open a leveraged account or something? I’m sure you would be accepted if you opened an account for just investing your own money.

2 Likes
6

individual

7

Investing from Taiwan as an American is a pretty bad idea with all the additional tax filing paperwork required. I would consult a CPA first. There’s FBAR, 8938, PFIC, maybe more. You’ll pay much more commissions and fees than using a US brokerage, more taxes, everything is worse. There’s no benefit to going this route unless you are buying local Taiwanese company stocks.

1 Like
8

Thanks, I didn’t understand a word of that though lol

2 Likes
9

So Taiwan has no such low cost self directed funds you can buy like most countries, like VFV in Canada for S&P SPY?
I asked a few years ago and Yuanta was trying to sell me a bank fund that invested in that, but they wanted something like 0.5% in fees to give them my money. The guy said the initial deposit was discounted from fees slightly but any future deposits got hit with 0.5 or something. The plus side is no capital gains taxes in Taiwan

10

No capital gains taxes is only for Taiwanese stocks. The foreign stocks would fall under AMT tax exclusion limit.

The fees in Taiwan are pretty high for everything. Usually 0.5-2% commission fee to buy/sell, plus 0.2% maintenance fee every year. They usually invest via a trust or some third entity so you don’t fill in W-8 Ben. This has some benefits, for example if the US blacklisted you from buying their stocks under your personal name for some reason.

There’s some local robo funds, such as offered by ESun. They are a pretty bad deal in general and quite fee heavy.

There’s another type of account called 複委託 (fu wei tuo) which gives you more control, but still quite a bit of fees. Usually the banker won’t offer to open this type of account since there’s less commissions for them but you can ask for it.

4 Likes
11

For Canadians, it probably works out the same with non resident capital gains tax. Learned something new, I always heard they didn’t capital gains tax anything in Taiwan

12

For a Canadian non-resident I like these options:

HXS.TO - SPY500 with 15% US dividend tax withholding, non-distributing
VFV.TO - SPY500 with 15% US dividend tax withholding + 15% CA dividend tax withholding (due to CA/TW tax treaty)

CSPX.L - SPY500 with 15% dividend tax withholding, non-distributing
SPXS.L - SPY500 with 0% dividend tax withholding, non-distributing

The Irish funds have less fees than the Canadian ones

Or buy something like BRK-B which doesn’t issue dividends

1 Like
13

um so…any banks to use or solutions? IB didn’t work for me.

14

IB works for literally everybody, including my Taiwanese nurse friend who is completely new to investing

You could try ESun if you really want a Taiwanese bank to buy stocks from

15

They must have changed something for new accounts then.
https://gdcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/Universal/servlet/Registration_v3.formHelp?s=p2107

16

You can try opening a paper trading account if you have no experience with stocks: Paper Trading Account

Or just download any paper trading app on your mobile phone and use it for a year. They are not asking for a certification or anything, just that you know a little about stocks. The Taiwan banks would ask you the same questions before allowing you to invest.

17

Perhaps where it asks you to write down how much experience you have with trading stocks, write 1-2 years (not 0). And choose a cash account not a margin account.

TD Ameritrade is another good option besides IB.

1 Like
18

Sounds like you tried to open a margin account.

19

I didn’t though

20

I think that might be the solution. Not sure if I can get in any trouble for that.