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You can have a look at ETF from Amundi, Lyxor, Legal and General (UK), Vanguard EU/UK. There are three problems broadly speaking. First is the currency, Americ

You can have a look at ETF from Amundi, Lyxor, Legal and General (UK), Vanguard EU/UK. There are three problems broadly speaking. First is the currency, American index funds are in dollars while you don't have dollars. There are a couple of index funds that are quoted in EUR/GBP, above. Second you need to find a bank that offers trading accounts and allow to buy these. It is god awful to find one. European banks are simply disconnected from the stocks market, they don't run brokerage and might not even know what it is when you ask for it. The only thing they sell and know about is their shitty in-house investment plan that's losing money every year. Third is taxation. American have lax taxation because it's local and they depend on it for their retirement. On the other hand Europe can have high taxation which really kills your profit and some classes of assets have dual taxation (US export + EU taxes) that makes even the best investment worthless.

seppel 7y ago
In general, you can ignore the currency that an index fund uses internally for reporting. You can buy A1JX52 using USD in the US or using EUR in the EU; the same as you can buy JPY using USD or EUR, whatever is more convenient for you. I don't know how the situation in general with Banks in Europe. But in Germany you will find many Banks which are convenient and offer cheap access to the stock market. Yes, they will try to sell you shit, but if you select an online bank and know what you are doing, you will never have to talk to anyone and get really good products. Taxation varies across Europe. Some countries take less than the US, some take more. But pretty much all countries of the western world have double-taxation agreements, so there is no double taxation. A German citizen, e.g., pays not more than 15% tax on the dividend of a US stock. It looks that this is even less than US citizens, but I'm not sure. That is of course and bit annoying when filling out tax forms, but if you invest in an fund, the issuer of the fund does it for you.
- user5994461 7y ago
  US applies 15% dividend taxes then France applies income tax 0 to 30% depending on your personal situation, a part of the double taxation can be had back through tax credits in the following year. It's yet another thing for capital gains. It's quite complicated and it's up in recent years with the government going against capital gains (i.e. rent seeking). If you invest in some European stocks instead, it can be eligible to 0% taxation on all gains. https://www.abcbourse.com/apprendre/5_fiscalite_us.html https://www.abcbourse.com/apprendre/5_fiscalite_us.html

seppel 7y ago

In general, you can ignore the currency that an index fund uses internally for reporting. You can buy A1JX52 using USD in the US or using EUR in the EU; the same as you can buy JPY using USD or EUR, whatever is more convenient for you. I don't know how the situation in general with Banks in Europe. But in Germany you will find many Banks which are convenient and offer cheap access to the stock market. Yes, they will try to sell you shit, but if you select an online bank and know what you are doing, you will never have to talk to anyone and get really good products. Taxation varies across Europe. Some countries take less than the US, some take more. But pretty much all countries of the western world have double-taxation agreements, so there is no double taxation. A German citizen, e.g., pays not more than 15% tax on the dividend of a US stock. It looks that this is even less than US citizens, but I'm not sure. That is of course and bit annoying when filling out tax forms, but if you invest in an fund, the issuer of the fund does it for you.

user5994461 7y ago
US applies 15% dividend taxes then France applies income tax 0 to 30% depending on your personal situation, a part of the double taxation can be had back through tax credits in the following year. It's yet another thing for capital gains. It's quite complicated and it's up in recent years with the government going against capital gains (i.e. rent seeking). If you invest in some European stocks instead, it can be eligible to 0% taxation on all gains. https://www.abcbourse.com/apprendre/5_fiscalite_us.html https://www.abcbourse.com/apprendre/5_fiscalite_us.html