Investing from Germany



You can apply the Bogleheads® investment philosophy if you live in Germany, but you must be aware of a few particularities.  introduces a series of them. Please ask portfolio questions in the Bogleheads forum and contact a professional advisor before acting on them.

The general guidance given in EU investing is applicable.

This page is not intended for US resident investors, as their situation is very specific.

Bogleheads style investing
The funds described in Investing from Belgium can also be used by German investors.

For distributing ETFs, Vanguard All-World ETF (VWRL: IE00B3RBWM25) would be a good choice for equities, although it excludes small caps.

The table below includes asset class exchange-traded funds; the fund International Securities Identification Number (ISIN); the fund total expense ratio (TER); and a description of fund characteristics.

Taxation
As always, taxes are very important and differ a lot between the European countries.

The SPDR® ETFs Tax Reference Guide from SPDRs Europe offers some detail on the situation for German investors. Use only German tax reporting funds to avoid taxation of unrealized cap gains, so that would be a reason specific for Germans to avoid US domiciled ETFs.

According to Vanguard, all Ireland domiciled ETFs are German tax reporting as of November 2015. Ireland domiciled ETFs would be a good option as Ireland does not tax dividends or estates, as long as they are German tax reporting then. Luxembourg domiciled ETFs would be avoided by me as long as they are physically replicating because they often cannot access tax withholding treaties. Physically replicating Germany domiciled ETFs should be fine, but choice is limited when you want to invest in stocks outside of Europe (an investor could use justETF to find ETFs).