A contract, not a share certificate

What is recorded in your own name

Holding a US share and holding a contract whose value follows the share price are different things. The first is recorded in your own name; the second is an agreement with the firm. A position at FxPro is a contract about a price, so no share is registered in your name and no dividend is paid to you as a holder.

A reader who wants the treaty rate on a dividend must hold the share, not a contract about its price. The form that claims the lower rate is a declaration about the ownership of income. A contract about a price gives no ownership of income, so the form has nothing to claim.

Why a contract on a share price pays no dividend

A dividend is paid by the company to the holder of the share. A contract whose value follows the share price is an agreement with the firm, not with the company. The firm has no dividend to pass on, because it has not received one. The value of the contract may rise or fall, but that is a change in the price, not a payment of income.

Everything else on this site is about the income a holder receives and the tax withheld on it. A contract on a share price has no income and no withholding. The gap between the two rates is a cost only to someone who holds the share and has not claimed the lower rate. For a contract, the gap does not exist.

What a licence held in another country does and does not do

A firm based abroad is licensed where it is based. That licence allows it to operate there, and it may allow it to accept clients from other countries. It does not mean that a reader in the Philippines has the same protections as a client in the firm’s home country. In a dispute, the reader may need to seek recourse in the firm’s jurisdiction, not in the Philippines.

Before opening an account, a reader should check what the firm’s licence covers and what dispute resolution is available. This site does not state that the broker is licensed, registered or supervised in the Philippines, and it does not name a regulator that is not in the list of facts. The licence held in another country is a fact, not a promise.

The account is opened with a company in the FxPro group, registered with the FCA in the United Kingdom and CySEC in Cyprus. It is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines. That changes what is available if something goes wrong: the protections that apply to a firm licensed locally do not reach a firm abroad, and a domestic complaint route is not open. Check the registration yourself before sending money.