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. US expats who live in Germany should look at Taxation as a US person living abroad before investing in Europe domiciled funds.

Bogleheads style investing
The funds described in the EU investing page (above link) can also be used by German investors.

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

The table below includes the asset class of 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, which would be a reason specific for Germans to avoid US domiciled ETFs.

German investors are taxed on dividends and realized capital gains at a rate of 26.375% without church tax and up to 28.625% including church tax depending on your religious affiliation. It does not matter if the fund distributes the dividends or reinvests them for you.

According to Vanguard, all their 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 could be unattractive if 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).