You can buy or sell any security, so Buying CHFUSD is selling USDCHF, just click on the Bid rather than the offer.

Do you mean Sell USDCHF and use the francs in your account to cover the purchase? Thanks for helping an absolute noob. Im trying to learn this so that I dont sell my francs accidentally for corn futures in Argentina

so the was IB works, it displays currencies in a fixed format for each ccy pair.
eg USD.CHF but CHF.JPY. You can't invert those pairs, that's the way those currency pairs are set up.
So if you have USD on your account and you want to convert those in CHF, you need to sell the USD.CHF instrument. So if the quote is 0.9105 - 0.9107, you'll hit the 0.9105 and for USD 1'000 you'll get CHf 910.5.- minus fees.

i think i am getting it. If I have francs then I just do the inverse of what you just said....Buy the USD.CHF

Not quite...

With any currency pair you always buy one side and sell the other.
There are conventional ways the major currency pairs are quoted based on base currency priorities. (See wiki link)

So take any currency pair:

ABC.XYZ, the quote is always going to be Bid@Offer
If you hit the bid you would receive XYZ and have to pay ABC, so you would be selling the base.
If you lift the offer you would receive ABC and have to pay XYZ, so you would be buying the base.

So hit bid = sell base ABC for XYZ, lift offer = buy base ABC for XYZ. If you get confused, you always pay more when you buy and get less when you sell.

Thanks Love Doctor

I think I understand the concept now, I just have to figure out how to apply it to IB. I see only the offer to buy CHF with the USD....I guess I will have to play with it some more.

Another IB topic....When you wish to send funds from your Swiss bank account you are given a CHF account in England with a GB IBAN. I sent the money via a SEPA payment and was charged a fee by my bank. My previous SEPA transfers to German Euro accounts were however all free. Is it just a UK thing that fees are involved in SEPA. Note: IB didnt charge any fees, it was my Swiss Bank.

Yes!

also foe SEPA, E stands for EURO and some banks charge a fee when the transfer is in anthoer "exotic" currency...crooks

As far as I understand it, the SEPA-relevant legislation only requires the bank to charge the same they would in internal transfers of the same sort in Euro denomination. So if you have a Portuguese bank account that charges 0 for transfers denominated in Euro to another Portuguese bank, they have to charge 0 for transfers denominated in Euro to any bank in SEPA. Switzerland is in SEPA, but most banks here will be taking CHF - if you send CHF, then the Portuguese bank could charge as much as they would charge for a CHF transfer to another Portuguese bank, which is presumably a hefty fee as nobody really does that.

In your particular case as you transferred CHF, the legislation does not apply apparently, so your Swiss bank is not forced to charge you the same they would for the CHF transfer to another Swiss bank (which is, presumably, 0).

I found another really transparent overview of trading currency...

http://fxtrade.oanda.com/learn/intro...currency-pairs

It explains base currency and all of that.

Hi Kiwiguy I concur with your esteem for vanguard etfs and am looking to set up a regular monthly buying plan for savings. Have you used IB for this? Is it based in the UK? Thanks in advance.

Hi ipsiety,

I am interested in opening an account at IB.
I have long hesitated between using a Swiss or a foreign broker.
I have finally chosen a Swiss broker but am already disappointed as they are not able to handle AUD, which they told me they could prior to opening the account.

So I am considering IB again but have still the same question that you asked in your first post
Could you please (or someone else who has the answer) share your experience on withholding tax from US, German or other stocks for a CH-resident.
How many tax was withheld for each of them and how much were you able to get back either via Swiss tax declaration or/and via foreign tax authorities.

Thank you very much for your help.
DR

should you post stuff like that up, you've just admitted on an open forum you advised clients to break laws in multiple countries

Could you please tell me which law is supposed to be broken here ?

Each country has the right to withhold taxes on dividends paid by local companies but, as you are not resident of this country, you have the right to reclaim part of it. Plus you can deduct from your local tax bill, the part that you couldn't reclaim.
I just wanted to have the numbers from someone who has the experience.

Hello,

I am referring to the previous post about IB and taxation in CH that was not answered.
As I am also interested on opening an account with IB could you please help by answering the question below?
Thanks

"Hi,

So how do you guys declare your IB transactions on the CH tax return? If you have even a low level of activity, up to 10 options trade a month, that would be 120 entries that have to be recorded in the DA-1(?) transaction pages of the tax return. That seems like another bit of work. Or do you simply decalre it upfront on Page 1 as another revenue source and just give the P from the anual P&L?

bill"

I am facing the same question: I'm with IB, and would like to declare taxes correctly. I don't have that many stocks, but given that I did buy gradually (small amounts frequently), and some stocks gave monthly dividends, that would be a loooong list to declare.

The dividends of my (mostly) US stocks were already taxed 15% at source.

How to declare this? Should I list everything?
Can't I somewhere just declare the total value of the stocks I have at 31.12.2014, declare how much dividends I received and how much dividend tax I paid?

Alternatively, is there a way to just declare to the tax office how much value the portfolio accounts, and how much it changed in the course of 2014 excluding the deposits & withdrawals? And just not bother about the dividends (which have been taxed in the US at 15%)...

I can "prove" this variation then, using the portfolio report, which clearly states NAV at beginning of the year, at the end of the year, and the deposits & withdrawals.

I have a question about IB. For a non US citizen with investment of over $60,000 USD asset in US, he/she is subject to estate tax. I think there is a potential that since IB LLC is a US company and its assets are held in US you will be subject to this tax. When I opened my IB account, I was directed to IB UK. I am unclear on where the assets are held when you use IB UK. I would like to avoid any possibility of having to pay estate taxes (not that it is a likely event) but why not be more cautious on the up front.

IB UK is a broker based in the UK, so what the US regulation states does not apply to you if you do not have any other connections with the US.

That you do not have any connections to the US is what you (probably) signed when you opened the IB account.

This is something I found online which makes the relationship between IB UK and IB LLC (US) less clear to me:

https://gdcdyn.interactivebrokers.co...agreement.html

IB LLC generally shall be responsible for the following:

a. Accepting IB UK Customer orders (and modifications and cancellations thereof) and transmitting them for

execution on various exchanges through IB LLC, IB UK, another Interactive Brokers Group affiliate or a third

party intermediate broker. Pursuant to the IB UK Customer Agreement, IB UK and IB LLC reserve the right to

reject any IB UK Customer order that may be transmitted to either of them for execution and/or clearing.

Hi,

In trying to deposit money to my IB account it said I need to print and take a form to my bank to do a Wire transfer. Do I actually need to print this, or can I do it through e-banking?

I'm trying to find the lowest fee method of transferring this money (CHF currency), and I think my bank charges a fee if I go there in person to request a transfer.

I have Zurcher Kantonalbank if it matters. My e-banking has options to do a "Bank payment abroad, SEPA" - but this is only in EUR currency (and I imagine I won't get a favorable exchange rate doing that.)

Thanks!
-V