Buying US and overseas shares

Buying shares in US companies, or in companies listed on other overseas exchanges, is something UK investors can do through the same platforms they use for UK shares. A share is a single unit of ownership in a company¹, and a US share works the same way: it is part ownership of that business, it can pay dividends, and it usually carries voting rights. What makes overseas shares different is the paperwork and the costs around them. Before a platform will let you buy US-listed investments, it will normally ask you to complete a form called a W-8BEN, which affects how much tax is taken from your US dividends². There are also dealing fees, currency conversion charges and some tax rules that apply only to holdings outside the UK.

The mechanics are straightforward once set up. Many platforms offer the ability to hold investments inside an ISA, a SIPP or a Junior ISA, and all platforms also offer an ordinary trading account with no special tax benefits, sometimes called a general investment account³. US shares can sit in any of these, subject to the account's own rules. In August 2026, interactive investor published a list of the most held US-listed shares by its ISA customers by value, led by NVIDIA Corp, which shows how common US share ownership has become among UK ISA investors⁴.

What owning a US share gives you

A share is a single unit of ownership in a company¹. Buying one US share makes you a part owner of that US business in exactly the same way as buying a UK share makes you a part owner of a UK one. The rights that come with it are the same in kind: a claim on part of the company's profits, which may be paid out as dividends, and usually a vote at company meetings on matters such as board appointments. How those rights reach you depends on how you hold the share, and most UK investors hold US shares through a platform rather than directly.

When you hold shares through a platform, the platform administers the practical side of ownership. It collects dividends, passes on information about corporate actions such as takeovers and rights issues, and arranges voting. The Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles complaints about stocks and shares, describes a share as a single unit of ownership in a company, and that definition holds whether the company is listed in London, New York or elsewhere¹. The underlying investment is the same; the wrapper, the paperwork and the costs differ.

Dividends from US companies are paid in US dollars, and the platform converts them into pounds before crediting them to your account, or holds them in dollars if the account allows a dollar balance. That conversion is one of the recurring costs of holding overseas shares, and it applies each time money moves between currencies. The guide to how dividends work covers what dividends are and how companies decide to pay them, and dividends, corporate actions and voting when you invest through a platform covers how these events are handled when you do not hold the certificates yourself.

Where US shares can be held: ISA, Junior ISA, general account or SIPP

US shares can be held in each of the main account types a UK investor uses. Many platforms offer the ability to hold investments inside an ISA, a SIPP or a Junior ISA, and all platforms also offer an ordinary trading account with no special tax benefits, sometimes called a general investment account³. The choice of account changes the tax treatment of the US shares, not the shares themselves.

The rules on what an ISA can contain matter here. Shares listed on a foreign stock exchange can be held in an ISA⁸, and since 5 August 2013, company shares traded on any market of a recognised stock exchange in the European Economic Area can be included⁹. US-listed shares qualify because the US exchanges are recognised stock exchanges for ISA purposes. There are exceptions at the edges: UK cryptoasset exchange traded notes cannot be held under a stocks and shares ISA unless they were already held there immediately before 6 April 2026¹⁰, which shows that the qualifying rules are specific and can change.

The tax position of each account is the main practical difference:

The guide to where investments can be held sets out the options in more detail, and investing for children covers Junior ISAs.

The W-8BEN form: needed before you deal in US shares

The W-8BEN is a US tax form. Its purpose is to tell the US authorities that you are not a US person, so that a lower rate of US withholding tax applies to dividends from US shares. AJ Bell states that you need to complete a W-8BEN form to buy and sell US-listed investments within any account except a SIPP². Bestinvest states that if you want to invest in US shares in your ISA, Junior ISA or Investment account you need to complete a W-8BEN⁵. In practice, the platform presents the form as a step in setting up US dealing, and it must be done before the first US trade.

The form asks for identifying details: name, address, country of residence and, in most cases, a US taxpayer identification number or a foreign tax identifying number such as a National Insurance number. The platform submits the form to the US authorities on your behalf. Without it, the platform cannot certify your status, and the higher rate of US withholding tax is applied to dividends instead of the lower one.

The difference the form makes is substantial, and it is covered in the next section. The narrow guide to W-8BEN forms covers the form itself in more depth. The key points for a first-time buyer are that the form is free, it is completed through the platform, and US dealing is not switched on until it has been processed.

How to complete a W-8BEN for each type of account

How you complete the form depends on the account and the platform. AJ Bell states that online completion is available for most accounts, but that for a Junior account, Joint Dealing account, Bare Trust Dealing account or a dealing account for UK-registered pension schemes, an offline form is required². Bestinvest gives the processing times: online W-8BEN forms take three business days to process, and manually submitted W-8BEN forms take five business days to process⁵.

For SIPPs and other non-personal accounts, the form needed may be the longer W-8BEN-E rather than the standard W-8BEN. Bestinvest states that if you want to invest in US shares in your SIPP, Trust or other non-personal account you must complete a W-8BEN-E⁵. AJ Bell's position is that a W-8BEN is required for every account except a SIPP². The two platforms describe the boundary differently, so the practical answer is to check the requirements of the platform you actually use before planning a first US purchase.

The wait for processing matters if you are timing a purchase. A form submitted online on a Monday is typically processed by Thursday, on the three business day timescale⁵, while a manual form for a Junior ISA can take a week or more. Until processing is complete, US-listed investments cannot be bought in that account.

How overseas dividends are taxed in the UK

US dividends are taxed in two layers. The first layer is US withholding tax, taken at source in the United States before the dividend reaches your account. With a valid W-8BEN in place, the rate is 15%; without one, it is 30%⁵. This is deducted regardless of the account the shares sit in, including ISAs and SIPPs, because it is a US tax on the dividend rather than a UK tax on you.

The second layer is UK tax, and here the account makes the difference. Inside an ISA or a SIPP there is no UK income tax on the dividends. In a general investment account, dividends are taxed according to your income tax band. HMRC's guidance notes for 2025-26 set out the dividend rates: 8.75% for dividends within the basic rate band, 33.75% for dividends otherwise chargeable at the higher rate, and 39.35% for dividends in the additional rate band⁷. The higher rate figure is confirmed in HMRC's Savings and Investment Manual, which states that this rate remains 32.5% for income taxed under the old rules but that the current dividend higher rate is 33.75%¹². Before the 2016 reforms, dividends came with a tax credit equal to one ninth of the dividend, which was equal to 10% of the dividend plus the credit¹²; that system has gone, and dividends are now taxed directly.

Every taxpayer also has a dividend nil rate, a 0% tax band for a set amount of dividend income each year. HMRC's internal manual explains that the "allowance" is properly called the dividend nil rate, a 0% tax rate inserted into the Income Tax Act¹². HMRC also notes that over 90% of UK taxpayers do not receive taxable dividend income¹³, so for most people the nil rate covers their dividends entirely.

When valuing overseas dividends, HMRC guidance is to use the net price after income tax has been deducted, and it notes that newspapers and websites give the net price for UK companies but the gross price for overseas companies⁸. That distinction matters when you are working out what a dividend is worth to you: a US dividend quoted gross has 15% or 30% taken from it before it lands in your account⁵. The guide to how investments are taxed covers the UK side in full.

Dealing fees and currency conversion

Buying or selling shares through a platform costs money, and the headline cost is dealing commission. The Association of Investment Companies' guidance states that this varies considerably but a typical amount would be approximately £10 per deal⁶. Some platforms charge more for overseas shares than for UK ones, and some charge different amounts for live telephone deals versus online ones, so the figure for your own platform may sit above or below that typical amount.

The second cost is currency conversion. US shares are priced in dollars, so buying them means converting pounds into dollars, and selling means converting back. Platforms apply a foreign exchange charge to this conversion, which is usually a percentage of the amount converted. As an example of how these charges are stated, eToro's Stocks and Shares ISA, which had its dealing commission and annual custody fee removed in July 2026, still applies a 0.70% foreign exchange charge to non-GBP assets¹⁴. The percentage sounds small, but it applies to every conversion in both directions, and on regular small deals it can add up to more than the dealing commission itself.

A third cost, or absence of one, is stamp duty. UK share purchases normally attract stamp duty, but because non-UK investment companies are not based in the UK, often in the Channel Islands, investors do not have to pay stamp duty when they buy their shares¹⁵. The same principle applies to direct purchases of US-listed shares, which are outside the scope of UK stamp duty on shares. HMRC's guidance on stamp duty on shares notes the administrative side of share transfers, aiming to deal with 80% of stock transfer forms within 15 working days of receiving them¹⁶, though platform trades do not require you to submit such forms yourself.

The guides to dealing charges and investment platform fees and charges set out these costs across the market, and is commission-free trading really free? explains how zero-commission offers are paid for in other ways.

Markets a platform cannot reach directly

Not every stock market in the world is directly accessible from a UK platform. AJ Bell publishes a list of the international markets it can deal in, and platforms generally offer direct access to a set of major markets, with the US being the most widely available². For markets outside that list, or for companies whose shares are not listed in a form a UK investor can buy directly, there are indirect routes.

The main indirect route is a depository receipt: a security listed on an accessible exchange that represents shares in a company listed elsewhere. These let a UK investor hold exposure to a foreign company through an instrument traded on an exchange the platform can reach. A related route is funds: an investment fund that holds overseas shares gives indirect exposure to many companies at once, and a quarter of UK adults hold a type of composite investment¹⁷. The guides to investment funds, ETFs and investment trusts cover these vehicles.

There is a tax point worth knowing when UK shares are exchanged for shares in an offshore company, for example in a corporate reorganisation. HMRC's Capital Gains Tax measure on share or securities exchange deems shares and securities in a non-UK company received in exchange for shares or securities in a UK company to be located in the UK for Capital Gains Tax purposes, and non-domiciled individuals will now pay tax on gains or income received from the shares or securities in the non-UK company in the same way as if they were in a UK company¹⁸. In other words, swapping UK shares for offshore ones does not move the tax liability offshore.

Taking dividends as income or reinvesting them

US dividends arrive in your account as cash, in pounds after conversion, unless the account holds a dollar balance. From there you have two choices: take the cash as income, or reinvest it. HMRC guidance states there is no limit on reinvestment into dividend shares¹⁹, so the tax rules do not restrict the reinvestment option.

The choice interacts with the account type. Inside an ISA or SIPP, both options are free of UK tax on the dividends themselves, so the decision is purely about whether you need the income. In a general investment account, dividends above the dividend nil rate are taxed at 8.75%, 33.75% or 39.35% depending on your band⁷, whether you take them as cash or reinvest them, because reinvested dividends still count as dividend income received. Reinvesting does not defer the tax; it only changes what happens to the money afterwards.

One further point on valuation: HMRC's guidance on valuing shares notes that shares listed on a foreign stock exchange can also be held in an ISA, and that foreign shares other than those listed on the London Stock Exchange should be included in a valuation at their market value⁸. This matters for inheritance tax valuations and similar purposes, and it is a reminder that overseas holdings are reportable even when they sit inside a tax wrapper. The guide to dividend reinvestment explains how to set it up.

Risks of holding individual overseas shares

The risks of holding individual overseas shares are the risks of holding any individual share, plus some extra ones. An individual share can fall sharply or become worthless if the company fails, and holding shares in one or two companies, of any country, concentrates that risk. The guides to investment risk and diversification and asset allocation cover how concentration risk works and how funds spread it.

The overseas-specific risks are these:

• Currency risk. A US share is priced in dollars, so its value to you moves with the pound-dollar exchange rate as well as with the share price. A share that rises in dollars can still fall in value to you if the dollar weakens.
• Withholding tax. US dividends lose 15% or 30% to US tax before they reach you, including inside an ISA or SIPP⁵.
• Enforcement. Official guidance notes that legal rights are difficult to enforce when the trader is not based in the UK²⁰. The same principle applies in cross-border investing: your remedies against an overseas company are more complicated than against a UK one.
• ISA subscription after moving abroad. The rules on subscribing to an ISA after leaving the UK are set out in the ISA regulations, and the Individual Savings Account (Amendment) Regulations 2016 allow an account investor who is not resident in the United Kingdom to make a subscription where the terms and conditions of the account allow for it²¹. Check the position with your platform before relying on this.

Some countries do not recognise dual citizenship, and you may have to give up your British citizenship or nationality to become a citizen of your destination country²². That is a long way from buying a US share, but it illustrates the wider point: cross-border arrangements carry rules that can surprise people who assumed their UK position travels with them.

Complaints and protection

If something goes wrong with a share deal, a dividend that never arrives, or the way a platform handled your account, the first step is to complain to the platform or broker itself. If it does not resolve the matter, the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider complaints about stocks and shares¹. The ombudsman is free to use and looks at whether the firm treated you fairly, not at whether your investments performed well; poor performance alone is not something it can put right.

Protection for investments themselves is limited. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme covers the failure of a platform or broker in certain circumstances, not investment losses, and the guides to what happens if an investment platform fails and whether FSCS covers poor investment performance draw that line precisely. Overseas shares held through a UK platform are held in the same way as UK shares, so the platform's arrangements, not the country of the share, determine how your holding is protected.

For free, impartial help with the underlying questions, MoneyHelper, the government-backed money guidance service, is the starting point for general investment questions, and the Financial Ombudsman Service is the route for complaints. The guide to consumer protection in UK financial services sets out the full framework.