A non-resident alien can hold US shares. The questions worth answering before opening an account are about tax, not about the platform.

Which brokers accept non-resident clients

Honestly: this changes constantly and depends on your country of residence, and no official source lists it.

What we can confirm is that Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab both operate documented non-US onboarding processes with W-8BEN collection. Both publish international application pages.

Beyond those two, availability is genuinely country-specific. A broker that accepts clients in Nigeria may not accept clients in Pakistan, and policies are revised without announcement. Check the broker's own international application page for your country rather than relying on any list, including ours.

What to look for when comparing:

• Does it accept residents of your country, specifically
• Minimum deposit
• Whether it handles W-8BEN collection and treaty rates automatically
• Funding routes from your country, and the FX cost of getting money in
• Whether it supports the securities you want

Dividends: 30%, or less with a treaty

US-source dividends paid to a non-resident are FDAP income, subject to 30% withholding at source. The broker withholds it; you do not file anything to trigger it.

If you are resident in a country with a US income tax treaty, you may qualify for a reduced rate. The rate is treaty-specific — it varies by country, and it is not always 15%. Check the treaty for your own country rather than assuming a number.

Form W-8BEN is how you certify foreign status and claim the treaty rate. You give it to the broker, not to the IRS. It expires on the last day of the third calendar year after you sign it, and brokers will ask you to refresh it. If you let it lapse, withholding reverts to 30% and may go higher.

Capital gains: generally not taxed

This surprises people. A non-resident individual who is not engaged in a US trade or business generally owes no US tax on capital gains from US securities.

There are exceptions worth knowing:

• US real property interests are caught by FIRPTA — different rules entirely.
• A non-resident present in the US for 183 days or more in the tax year can be taxed at 30% on certain capital gains.

Note also that your country of residence will almost certainly tax the gain. The absence of US tax is not the absence of tax.

The estate tax exposure — read this part

This is the risk most non-resident investors in US shares have never heard of.

US-situs assets — including US securities — are within the scope of US estate tax when a non-resident dies. Form 706-NA is required where the date-of-death value of US-situs assets, plus the gift tax specific exemption and adjusted taxable gifts, exceeds a $60,000 filing threshold.

Three things make this serious:

1. $60,000 is not indexed for inflation. It was set decades ago and has not moved.
2. Rates run from 18% to 40%.
3. A US person gets a multi-million-dollar exclusion. A non-resident gets the exemption equivalent of a $13,000 unified credit — that is where the $60,000 comes from.

So a non-resident holding $400,000 of US shares is nominally exposed on $340,000 of it.

What changes the answer: the US has estate tax treaties with a handful of countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. Where one applies, it can substantially raise the effective exemption. Most countries do not have one.

There are structures that reduce this exposure — holding non-US-domiciled funds that give US market exposure, for instance. Whether any of them suit you is a question for an adviser who knows your residence and your estate, not for an article.

The return is due nine months after death, extendable with Form 4768.

Practical set-up checklist

1. Confirm the broker accepts residents of your country
2. Complete W-8BEN and check the treaty rate applied to your dividends
3. Diary the W-8BEN expiry — three calendar years after signature
4. Understand your own country's tax on US dividends and gains
5. Get advice on the estate tax position before the portfolio gets large