Foreign dividends (W8-BEN, etc.): SIPP vs ISA

grey_gym_sock

it may be a broker's policy (rather than a legal requirement) not to allow you to purchase US shares without first filling in a W8-BEN. perhaps because they are concerned about the obligations they are under to report various info to the US. or just to keep it simple - their systems may not cope with having 30% withheld from only some clients' holdings.

dunno why HL and AJB differ on wanting W8-BEN for a SIPP.

Atreyu107

newlease wrote: »

In fact, HL's language suggests they will not let you buy a US share without filling out the W8-BEN even if you're not bothered about the WHT.

As Grey Gym Sock suggests, this is usually due to the fact that brokers simply can't handle withholding tax at two different rates (source: I used to work for one of the big ex-only brokers).

In fact, a lot of brokers apply Boolean logic to the high-level accounts. In essence this is a check-box that sits behind your account which says something like 'Allows US holdings: True/False'. The broker only ticks it if you provide a W8-BEN. If you don't you can't buy US investments in any account type. Of course, this might not be true for the entire industry, but this is how it worked at my old firm.

With regards to the SIPP-specific question, AJ Bell started off as a pensions administrator and that remains their primary business; they also act as the administrator for their own YouInvest platform. You'd therefore expect them to be more flexible given they have the integration between their two business.