AUTHOR: Guindy Sam on 2/5/2026 FIRST: Susanne Krivit on 2/14 | RECENT: Andrew Forsythe on 2/26
Comments
Thank you. I see your point: There is no double-taxation on the capital gains when using Roth funds. But when investing in foreign markets using Roth funds, we lose the benefit of using Roth, i.e., zero tax on capital gains. However, I noticed that some countries may have 0% withholding when US investors use retirement funds. For example, I believe when US investors use retirement funds to invest in Canadian stocks (not REITs) there is no Canadian withholding tax. Still researching this. It gets hairy depending on the type of income. Different sources of income have different treatments. Taxable: Canadian "participating interest", capital gains from "Taxable Canadian Property", etc.
Not taxable: capital gains on publicly listed stocks (not REITs). See https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/documents/1435520/3126711/NAV0157_non-resident_withholding_tax_aoda_EN.pdf
That 20%-50% advice is in the hyperlink I provided. Also repeated here for easy reference: https://humbledollar.com/money-guide/great-debates-how-much-abroad/
Comments
Thank you. I see your point: There is no double-taxation on the capital gains when using Roth funds. But when investing in foreign markets using Roth funds, we lose the benefit of using Roth, i.e., zero tax on capital gains. However, I noticed that some countries may have 0% withholding when US investors use retirement funds. For example, I believe when US investors use retirement funds to invest in Canadian stocks (not REITs) there is no Canadian withholding tax. Still researching this. It gets hairy depending on the type of income. Different sources of income have different treatments. Taxable: Canadian "participating interest", capital gains from "Taxable Canadian Property", etc. Not taxable: capital gains on publicly listed stocks (not REITs). See https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/documents/1435520/3126711/NAV0157_non-resident_withholding_tax_aoda_EN.pdf
Post: Taxes on foreign stocks
Link to comment from February 24, 2026
That 20%-50% advice is in the hyperlink I provided. Also repeated here for easy reference: https://humbledollar.com/money-guide/great-debates-how-much-abroad/
Post: Taxes on foreign stocks
Link to comment from February 24, 2026