Any non-US citizen is using US online brokerage?

[monaG]

Hi

I would like to use a US online brokerage to trade in the US market, since my friends recommended it, saying it charges low commission fee.

In the process of opening an account online, I found I have to deal with the tax withholding in US.

I am not a Singaporean and not a US citizen either. I wonder if my trading gains are subject to the US tax? How should I deal with it?

I would appreciate any experience and suggestion.
Thank you~~

[Segue]

I'm a US citizen with an online trading account in the US, but I do have a friend that is a non-citizen with an established US trading account.

It does require that you have a US tax payers ID and you are liable for taxes on the income earned.

Unless you have lived in the US before, I think its much better to establish a trading account here.

[monaG]

I did live in the US before, though I doubt if the tax ID still works. In any case, I wonder if I can claim a tax refund from the US, assuming that I pay all investment gain taxes in Singapore.

[aster]

I think that foreign investors are not subject to capital gains tax in the US on their trading activity there, but this is not a certainty so you should double-check this.

There are big US brokerages that have branches in Asia. I'm sure some of them are present here too.