Wow, okay, so… I gotta admit, I’m late to the party. But guess what? Syfe started offering UCITS ETFs on their platform in February. Yep, I know, I know, I’m lagging behind, like always, but when I stumbled across this, it was like finding an old favorite T-shirt in the back of your closet. It’s a tad exciting for me. Why? Well, I’ve been slowly, like really slowly, shifting my ETF stash from the US ones to these Irish-domiciled UCITS ones. This whole tax-saving thing has me all in knots and butterflies.
Alright, for those scratching their heads right now, here’s the deal: UCITS ETFs, mostly hanging out in Ireland and listed on the LSE, dodge the hefty 30% dividend withholding tax that US-based ones can’t avoid. Instead, you’re only hit with a 15% tax on those juicy dividends. So yeah, investing in UCITS could mean you get to keep more of those sweet dividends. But, if you’re into ETFs that don’t bother with dividends, like that Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), this whole thing’s a wash.
Anyway—ugh, got sidetracked. Right, I’ve been shuffling my Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF (VT) into something new… something Irish. I’m talking about the Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD, with those mysterious codes: VWRA and VWRD. Think of VWRA as the squirrel storing away acorns (accumulating version) and VWRD as passing out candy on Halloween (distributing version). It’s a whole switcheroo I didn’t think I’d get into.
Okay, ramble over. Sort of.
