How to buy US stocks and ETFs from Austria

This page lists the investment platforms whose own pages say they accept residents of Austria, with their licences, fees and the deposit methods available here. We only count platforms that publish a list of the countries they accept: a company that does not say whom it accepts is left out, even if it might open an account for you. Being on the list is not a recommendation.

Some verified points for Austria:

• Interactive Brokers names Austria on its list of available countries and territories. Its pages do not say which of its companies opens accounts for residents of Austria, so check the company named in your client agreement; one of them is Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. IBKR charges no fee for bank transfer deposits (your bank may), and after two free withdrawals a calendar month it charges a fee per withdrawal.
• When it launched its app for checking financial providers in January 2018, the Financial Market Authority (FMA) recommended, “before investing in a financial instrument, to consult our company database to check about the provider’s credentials”, and added: “If the relevant licence is not held, or if an investor warning has been issued, it is better to not proceed with the investment.” Its overview of databases also lists one on cross-border activities in Europe.

Einlagensicherung AUSTRIA (ESA), the protection scheme for the Austrian credit institutions affiliated to it, explains that securities held in a custody account remain the customer’s property and “are therefore in general neither a case for deposit protection nor for investor compensation”. If, in a compensation case, the bank cannot transfer or deliver the securities to another custody account as instructed, the investor can claim compensation, which ESA secures up to €20,000. ESA protects deposits at Austrian private, national and cooperative banks up to €100,000, in special cases up to €500,000. No investor compensation scheme pays for falling prices.

For US shares, the platform will ask you for Form W-8BEN. The IRS says most US-source income of a foreign person, dividends included, is taxed at 30% through a withholding tax unless a tax treaty or the tax code sets a lower rate. Austria is on the IRS list of US income tax treaties, so a lower rate may apply. Austria may tax the same dividend too, so ask the tax office or a qualified tax adviser.