Investing in foreign stocks involves many costs. One of the costs is the taxes paid to foreign governments on dividends earned by US investors. Such dividend withholding taxes can be huge for some countries such as Switzerland and while others such as Singapore do not withhold taxes.

While paying a substantial portion of dividends earned as taxes to a foreign state, it is possible to claim some or all of the taxes paid in US tax returns. An investor may be either to claim a credit or itemize as deductions. However taxes paid for stocks in certain qualified retirement accounts cannot be claimed at all. Hence it is wise to hold foreign stocks especially ones that are high dividend payers in taxable accounts.

Many investors may wonder whether to take a deduction or credit for the taxes paid to foreign countries. An article by Rande Spiegelman at Charles Schwab explains the ways to claim foreign taxes paid. From the article:

Deduction or credit?

Once you have verified the amount you’ve paid in foreign taxes, you’ll want to make sure to claim it on your U.S. taxes. The key question is whether to take an itemized deduction for the foreign taxes you paid or a tax credit. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on how you approach your tax filing.

Deduction. If you already make itemized deductions using Schedule A of Form 1040—for example, by deducting mortgage interest or charitable contributions—then taking a deduction for foreign tax payments might be the easier way to go. An itemized deduction can reduce your tax bill by lowering your taxable income.

Credit. Claiming a tax credit for foreign taxes can give you more bang for your buck by providing a dollar-for-dollar reduction of your actual tax bill. Consider that hypothetical $200 in foreign taxes again. A credit could reduce your U.S. tax liability by the full $200, assuming you’re eligible for the entire amount. Taking a tax credit seems like the obvious choice, right?

Unfortunately, the foreign tax credit has a few limitations. First of all, if you pay more than $300 for the year in foreign taxes (or $600 if married and filing jointly) and you want to claim a tax credit, in general you must fill out Form 1116. The form can be complicated, although most mutual funds and brokers include the necessary information in their year-end tax statements.

You could also face a cap on the size of your credit depending on how your foreign income and taxes stack up against your U.S. income and taxes. In short, your foreign tax credit cannot be larger than your total U.S. tax liability.

For example, imagine you earned $1,000 from your foreign investments and paid $350 in taxes overseas. Now let’s assume that the U.S. tax bill on the same income would have been $250. Your maximum credit would be $250.

Source: Lost in Translation, Charles Schwab

The entire article worth a read for investors who are new to international investing.

Here are a few points to remember regarding foreign dividend withholding taxes:

• UK does not deduct withholding taxes for US investors. However dividends from UK REITs will be subject to taxes.
• Canadian stocks are best held in retirement accounts as dividends are waived for such accounts.
• Dividends paid out by Canadian REITs are subject to withholding taxes.
• Investors should not hold dividend stocks from countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, etc. in retirement accounts as all the taxes paid cannot be recovered in any way.
• While a few emerging countries like India do not charge taxes on dividends paid out to foreign investors, most others like Chile, Brazil, Colombia, etc. withhold taxes on dividends.

The Price/Earnings ratio (P/E) is sometimes used by investors to identify if equities are cheap or expensive and if getting in when the ratio is lower means higher returns in the future. However an article by Lord Abbett notes that P/E ratio alone is not a good indicator of future market returns.

From the article:

History shows, however, that, in the short run, the P/E ratio has not been a reliable predictor of future market returns. In the past 20 years, for example, the S&P 500 has traded at its current level of approximately 18.7 times trailing earnings twice—once in January 1996 and again in June 2004. What happened over the next five years in each case? The results were very different. Cumulative returns five years out from 1996 reached triple digits; after 2004, returns were negative (see Chart 1).

 

If P/Es haven’t been reliable predictors of short-term market returns, what about other commonly cited metrics? We’ve looked at a number of them—including the Shiller CAPE ratio, EPS growth, earnings growth, dividend yield, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) model, and U.S. gross domestic product—to assess how well they predict the next 12 months of stock returns. The answer: Not well at all.

Moreover, over the long term, market timing takes a toll on equity fund returns. As a previous blog reported, a Morningstar study in 2014 depicted significant shortfalls over a 10-year period across seven major fund categories caused by poor market timing.

If popular metrics tell us very little about the near-term direction of the stock market, then that should speak to the difficulty of market timing.

Source: Stocks: Put Time on Your Side, Lord Abbett

So the key takeaway for investors is that the P/E ratio alone should not be the deciding factor when making investment decisions. Rather the ratio must be used together with other factors and invest for the long-term.

U.S. firms are paying out more of their earnings in dividends to shareholders than investing in R&D or growing their businesses according to a report in the journal today. Though the dividend yield of the S&P 500 has stayed around 2% for many years, the payout ratio has increased in recent years to record levels.

The following chart shows the dividend payout ratio of S&P 500 against European stocks as measured by the Stoxx 600 index:

Click to enlarge

From the news report:

S&P 500 companies have paid out 37.5% of their earnings in dividends over the past 12 months, just a fraction below the 38.1% recorded in 2009, when earnings were plunging during the depths of the financial crisis.

In Europe, the payout ratio surpassed financial crisis levels in late 2014. The Stoxx 600′s payout ratio is now at 58%. Part of the difference between the U.S. and European ratios is down to a preference for share buybacks in the U.S.

Source: Fund Managers Sour on Dividend Boom as U.S. Payouts Climb Towards New Record, WSJ, May 18, 2016

Many U.S. firms generally prefer to buy back their own shares than pay out cash in the form of dividends to shareholders. European companies prefer to payout dividends than share buybacks.

Also checkout:

• Comparing Australian Dividend Yield and Payout Ratio To Other Countries
• On The Historical Dividend Payout Ratio Of European Stocks
• On The Dividend Payout Ratios Of U.S. Stocks
• The Dividend Payout Ratio of British Stocks Continues To Rise
• A Comparison Of Global Dividend Payouts