I am planning to trade few of CH stocks. I went through many threads and have some idea but need some specific answers.
Background: I am not CH, or any other European citizen. I hold swiss bank account for salary crediting purpose only as of now.
My understanding as of now :
Banks charge heavily.
Swiss quote is costly compared to IB but i feel IB website is complex and was not able to understand much as i am beginner. Migros bank has only in German not in English.
My Specific Requirements:
1. Planning to trade only in CHF as of now
2. Easy and understandable website for beginners
3. Should not have complex charges and structures
4. Cheapest one
5. I will not be trading too heavily may be medium volume trader (if i understand market once it start ) or else i may be not trading much.
6. Less complication with taxes.
7. Website should support in English.
Can some one suggest me which one would be best IB, swiss quote, migros bank or any other.
If you only want to buy a few stocks, these should be probably US stocks, or index funds. Most of the biggest companies worth buying are in the US. 55+% of total world stock market capitalization is in the US. Switzerland is only a couple of percent on the other hand.
Didn't you need INR just yesterday in another thread?
IB by a large margin, but consider the inactivity fee
Deal with it. Many other brokers aren't that much better. Swissquote UI as I recall is still stuck in 1990s. Then, IB's mobile app isn't bad at all and reasonably streamlined. Even web trade UI is rather uncomplicated IMHO. There's absolutely no need to install that horrible TWS thing anymore if that was your impression of IB interface
Taxes mostly have to do with your choice of stocks, not broker. However it's true you'll pay more taxes with swiss brokers: Stempelsteuer and zusätzlicher Steuerrückbehalt USA. If that doesn't sound like fun, avoid swiss.
Yes i had thread yesterday but purpose of it was to understand best way of transferring chf to inr not for the stocks and as i mentioned i wanted to have separate thread for this and i started it today.
How much is inactivity fee's from IB? and i heard to trade in IB we need to put maintain minimum of 10K chf/USD. I am sure i cant maintain so much in that.
I ran through IB website was not able to figure out their process to trnasfer CHF to INR yesterday, I know this is off topic for this thread so let me not discuss about it here. IB is really good website and they have lot of options in their website but somehow i still feel its complex to handle for a new person like and one who wont stay or trade for many years. Just want to make little more during my stay here thats it.
Today i went through their website to understand commissions/charges but its complex for a new person like me. I was not able to understand where to start as i am beginner.
After IB which stands next which can meet all my requirements as mentioned in first thread.
$10/month normally, $3/month if you're under 25, $0 if you keep over 100k assets with them. Trading commissions offset the monthly fee, i.e. it's like a free trading allowance for the month.
If that's unacceptable, well, there are also many brokers which don't charge such fees and who would keep your assets for free. But normally then you'll end up paying a lot more in trading and/or FX fees. Among swiss brokers cheapest I know is CornerTrader. Among non-swiss I'm also quite happy with Schwab, but they only trade in USD. Swissquote and most swiss brokers do have custody fees, often outrageously high, so in comparison to them IB with only $120/year fee is still a steal
Yes, they have a $10K minimum. It doesn't have to be cash. Stocks that you keep in custody with them count towards it. And if you don't even have $10k to invest, then what's the point? By swiss standards u r broke. Earn & save some money first
They have two commission schemes, you can choose any and switch between them anytime:
Fixed: simpler pricing, but more expensive.
Tiered: in most cases cheaper, but more complex rules.
If you trade on US exchanges, their commissions are basically negligibly low in either case. European exchanges are much more costly and you might want to pay a closer attention to the terms.
None, you can't have them all and have to compromise
Can some one with real user experience suggest me other than IB, where there is no minimal to be maintained, next cheaper than IB, easier to use for beginner
Just fyi, Swissquote custody fee is 0.025% quarterly (min 15 CHF, max 50 CHF), so becomes more expensive than IB (Assuming no trading!) when your holding is above 120k.
but eventually, don't we have to pay these taxes while residing in Switzerland, i.e., during filing taxes if they are not paid during buying and selling securities? Can they be completely avoided using non-swiss brokers?
so does it mean when u trade with swiss brokers as a tax we only pay stamp duty? OR do we need to declare if any earnings from stock market and then pay taxes for that also?
The question was not about wealth tax, but swiss stamp duty and additional US withtholding. Yes, these two taxes are completely avoided by going through a non swiss broker
15% extra withholding tax on US dividends collected by the swiss broker itself. On top of 15% that you've shelled out to IRS. For a total of 30%. With non swiss brokers like IB you'd only pay 15%, the US-CH treaty rate.
So, payment of switzerland stamp duty is not the responsibility of the individual? will I not be asked for it while filing taxes?
AFAIK, the swiss authorities need the details of sales / purchases of securities to classify an individual as a professional or casual trader. Eventually, they will have all the information that it is not paid.
Another reason to not trade in CH and to use Ameritrade instead! However, withholding can be recollected from Uncle Sam (Donald) by filing a US tax return. Also withholding should only occur when one sells the position.