US Shares

[DanaCScully]

I am interested in buying US single company shares through my ISA. However I’m concerned this won’t be as simple as holding Shares that are listed in the UK and there will be additional forms to complete as US taxes to pay? I say this as I purchased shares in my US listed employer through a company scheme and there was something called a W5 withholding form/tax and I really didn’t want the hassle. I prefer to keep my tax affairs as simple as possible so I sold them after a month. Any advice?

As long as you do not have a tax presence in the US, it's very simple. You will need to fill in a W8-BEN form to receive dividends without witholding tax, but it's not complex. One thing to watch out for is how much you are being charged to convert the GBP to USD. You can only hold GBP in an ISA but your broker will convert them to USD to buy the shares; cost for this is should be around 0.5%, but some will charge much more.

Thanks Hereward1332, I’ll look into this.

If you use a platform for investing then they usually have all the forms you need and remind you when to fill them in.