Quote Originally Posted by Vagabond47 View Post
I am about to open an account with Tradestation to access the US markets at far better rates than going thru ASB. Part of the process is filling out a US IRS W8-BEN form, and now i'm wondering how much tax the US govt is going to want to take from my profits if any. Anybody have a quick rundown of the tax situation?

I'm not a trader, more a buy and hold investor, but will be purchasing a few put options and the like to hedge against general market downturns. No company or trust structure in use, just doing everything in my own name at this stage.

Thanks in Advance.
Without going into our own FIF regime etc etc I came across these W8-Bens recently in relation to business income from a US company that wanted to deduct a 30% withholding tax. Reading the W8-BEN and the double tax agreement, business income should be 0% but I have yet to hear back if they agree with me or not. In your case dividend income per Article 10 should not exceed 15% so I guess 15% is what you put on the W8-BEN assuming you are a NZ resident.

Not confident that this is right so best to check elsewhere and would appreciate it if you get back with what you find out.