Investment greetings, friends! Do you want to own shares of Apple, Coca-Cola, IBM, Adidas, Bank of America, Ford or McDonald's? No problem. It is possible to buy foreign shares in Russia - and much easier than, say, five years ago, when the stock market was still in its infancy. Now you can directly buy foreign shares on the stock exchange or through foreign brokers, use the help of intermediary companies - dealers - or use alternatives in the form of mutual funds and ETFs.
BASIC: income tax
Under the general taxation regime, the financial result from the transaction for the sale (including under an exchange agreement) of shares is taken into account according to the rules of Article 280 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
This procedure follows from paragraph 3 of Article 249 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, take into account income and expenses depending on how you calculate income tax: accrual method or cash method (Article 329 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Calculate the tax base from the sale of shares (their transfer under an exchange agreement (barter)) based on:
- the price at which the organization agreed to sell (transfer) shares;
- the price at which the organization previously received these shares;
- expenses for the sale (transfer) of shares.
This follows from paragraph 15 of Article 274 and Articles 280 and 329 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Situation: is it necessary to distribute general business expenses for transactions with securities when determining the tax base for income tax?
No no need.
Expenses upon the sale (or other disposal) of securities, including investment units of a mutual investment fund, are determined based on the purchase price of the security (including the costs of its acquisition), the costs of its sale (clause 3 of Article 280 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Thus, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not provide for the distribution of general business expenses when determining the tax base for transactions with securities. This position is also shared by the Russian Ministry of Finance in letter dated May 2, 2012 No. 03-03-06/1/217.
Is it possible to buy directly
The second option is to enter into a direct agreement with foreign brokers. For example, Interactive Brokers is one of the most popular American brokers providing services to Russian investors. The downside is that the minimum deposit is huge for a novice investor:
- $10,000 if you are over 25 years old;
- $3,000 if you are under 25 years old.
Commission per transaction – $0.005 for the purchase of 1 share, but not less than $1 for the entire transaction. So it is not profitable to trade in small volumes.
Saxo Bank is another popular option. This broker is registered in Denmark. The minimum deposit is also 10 thousand dollars, for a transaction they charge a fee of 2 cents for the purchase of one share, while the minimum commission for a transaction is 15 dollars.
CapTrader is a German broker with an entry threshold of $4,000. Already closer to us, but still a lot. Not every Russian novice investor has such amounts. Commission – from 1 cent per share.
And here’s another interesting article: Tinkoff All Airlines: review of a profitable card for travelers
In addition, you can work through brokers such as:
- Lightspeed;
- OptionsXpress;
- MB Trading;
- Place Trade;
- Choice Trade.
Advantages of foreign brokers:
- availability of insurance up to 50-100 thousand dollars;
- ability to trade with leverage;
- access to a huge amount of assets and to all American shares, including those not traded on the stock market (well, you never know - what if you want to buy shares of some corn farm in Iowa);
- access to all ETFs, including the popular SPY and SP500 indices, which are considered the most reliable and most profitable;
- the opportunity to directly buy US treasury bonds and Eurobonds of various companies, incl. Russian.
But among the disadvantages, I will note the need to have a large capital in the account, high commissions for Russians, and you will have to calculate and pay taxes yourself. And don't forget about the language barrier. If you don’t know English at least at the Intermediate level, then you have nothing to do there.
In short, if you only need the largest foreign stocks included in the US Dividend Aristocrats list, choose Russian brokers. These Iowa farms are for you!
Which stocks do you like best?
- American 40%, 28 votes
28 votes 40%28 votes - 40% of all votes
- ALL-ALL-ALL!
