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Tax Treaty Benefits: Check Your Rate by Country

Q: How do I know if the US has a tax treaty with my country?

Use the lookup at the top of this page. The US has income tax treaties with roughly 65 countries, and twelve of them are in the lookup with their rates, authorising articles and conditional tiers. If your country is not among them, that does not mean there is no treaty, only that it is not yet in this data set. Check the IRS treaty tables for the complete list.

Q: What happens if there is no tax treaty with my country?

No treaty rate is available, so the 30% Chapter 3 statutory rate is the starting point for US-source FDAP income, before any domestic-law exemption. What happens next depends on who you are. A foreign person receiving US income looks to their own country's rules for a credit or exemption; there is no US form that gives it back. A US taxpayer who paid foreign tax on the same income claims the US foreign tax credit on Form 1116. Brazil is the clearest no-treaty case in this set.

Q: Is a totalization agreement the same as a tax treaty?

No. An income tax treaty cuts withholding on investment income and decides which country taxes wages and pensions. A totalization agreement deals only with social security — it stops double social security taxation and combines coverage credits. The two networks cover different countries and neither implies the other.

Q: Does a tax treaty reduce my state tax too?

Usually not. Tax treaties bind the federal government, and states are not parties to them. Several states, including California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, do not follow federal treaty exemptions, so income exempt federally can still be taxed by your state.

A US tax treaty can cut the 30% withholding on your US income — sometimes to nothing. Find your rate, the article that authorises it, and the form that claims it.

Every rate on this page is cited to the treaty article that authorises it. Treaty texts last read September 9, 2026.

Quick answer

A US income tax treaty reduces the tax the United States withholds on income paid to residents of the other country. Without one, the Chapter 3 statutory rate on US-source FDAP income — dividends, interest and royalties among them — starts at 30%, before any domestic-law exemption. With a treaty it can fall to 10% — but only if you claim it, on the right form, before you are paid.

Check your treaty rate

Pick a country and the kind of income. Where a treaty charges different rates for different categories, or hangs its best rate on conditions, you get every tier and what each one requires — not a single number that may not be yours.

Country of residence

Type of US-source income

Twelve countries are in this data set. Looking for India? That is covered on nritousa.com, which handles the India–US side properly.

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you select is sent to a server, stored, or logged. There is no account and no sign-up.

Key takeaways

A treaty benefit is never automatic. Somebody has to be given a form before the rate changes — usually Form W-8BEN, given to your payer rather than to the IRS.
Rates vary far more than people expect. Portfolio dividends run from 10% (China) to 30% (Brazil) across the twelve treaties in this data set — and several treaties charge different rates for different categories of the same income.
The savings clause takes most benefits back from US citizens and residents. The exceptions to it are the part that decides real cases.
An income tax treaty and a social security totalization agreement are different agreements covering different countries. Having one tells you nothing about the other.
If there is no treaty, where relief comes from depends on who you are. A foreign recipient generally looks to their residence country’s credit or exemption rules. Form 1116is a US taxpayer’s claim for qualifying foreign taxes. And US domestic-law exemptions can remove the withholding entirely without any treaty at all.

What a tax treaty actually does

A tax treaty divides up the right to tax between two countries, so the same income is not taxed twice in full.

The United States taxes income that arises inside it, whoever earns it. If you live in Germany and hold shares in a US company, the United States wants tax on your dividend. Germany taxes you too, because you live there. Left alone, the same money is taxed twice.

A treaty fixes this in two ways. It caps the rate the source country may charge — that is the withholding rate everyone searches for — and it allocates the right to tax certain kinds of income to one country only. Pensions, government salaries, student payments and business profits without a permanent establishment are the usual candidates.

What a treaty does not do is remove your obligation to file. It changes what is owed, not whether you are in the system. And it does not apply itself: the reduced rate only happens if the payer has the right form on file before the payment.

The single most common misunderstanding

A treaty is not a refund scheme and it is not a loophole. It is a rate cap, agreed between two governments, which you have to claim in advance. If nobody gives your broker a W-8BEN, your broker withholds 30% — correctly — and getting it back means filing a return to ask for it.

How the twelve treaties compare

Every figure below was read from the treaty text or an amending protocol, not from a summary. The article that authorises each rate is shown with it, so you or your accountant can check it against the source.

The twelve treaties side by side

Country	Dividends	Dividends (large stake)	Interest	Royalties (lowest)
Brazil	No treaty30% statutory	No treaty30% statutory	No treaty30% statutory	No treaty30% statutory
Canada	15%Article X(2)(b)	5%Article X(2)(a), as amended by the 1995 protocol, Article 5(1)	0%Article XI(1), as replaced by the 2007 protocol, Article 6split by category	0%Article XII(3)split by class
China	10%Article 9(2)	10%Article 9(2)	10%Article 10(2)split by category	7%Article 11(2), read with the protocol, paragraph 6split by class
France	15%Article 10(2)(b), as replaced by the 2009 protocol	5%Article 10(2)(a), as replaced by the 2009 protocol+0% tier, conditional	0%Article 11(1)split by category	0%Article 12(1), as replaced by the 2009 protocol
Germany	15%Article 10(2)(b), as substituted by the 2006 protocol	5%Article 10(2)(a), as substituted by the 2006 protocol+0% tier, conditional	0%Article 11(1)	0%Article 12(1)
Italy	15%Article 10(2)(b)	5%Article 10(2)(a)	10%Article 11(2)split by category	0%Article 12(3)split by class
Japan	10%Article 10(2)(b)	5%Article 10(2)(a)+0% tier, conditional	0%Article 11(1), as replaced by the 2013 protocol, Article IVsplit by category	0%Article 12(1)
Korea	15%Article 12(2)(a)	10%Article 12(2)(b)	12%Article 13(2)split by category	10%Article 14(2)split by class
Mexico	10%Article 10(2)(b), as substituted by the 2003 protocol, Article II(a)	5%Article 10(2)(a), as substituted by the 2003 protocol, Article II(a)+0% tier, conditional	15%Article 11(2)(c)split by category	10%Article 12(2)
Philippines	25%Article 11(2)(a)	20%Article 11(2)(b)	15%Article 12(2)split by category	15%Article 13(2)(a)
Spain	15%Article 10(2)(b), as replaced by the 2013 protocol, Article IV	5%Article 10(2)(a), as replaced by the 2013 protocol, Article IV+0% tier, conditional	0%Article 11(1), as replaced by the 2013 protocol, Article Vsplit by category	0%Article 12(1), as replaced by the 2013 protocol, Article VI
United Kingdom	15%Article 10(2)(b)	5%Article 10(2)(a)+0% tier, conditional	0%Article 11(1)	0%Article 12(1)

Every figure is read from the treaty text or a protocol, with the authorising article shown beneath it. Two flags matter as much as the numbers: split means the treaty charges different rates for different categories of payment, so the figure shown is the lowest and may not be yours; +0% tier means a conditional zero rate exists for large corporate holdings, which depends on ownership, a holding period and a limitation-on-benefits test that a table cannot resolve. Use the lookup for either.

Two things stand out. First, the spread is enormous: on the same kind of income, one treaty charges nothing and another charges 30%. Second, several treaties split royalties by class — software might be free while a trademark is not — so a single “royalty rate” for a country is often the wrong question.

Source: IRS — United States income tax treaties A to Z — the index used to confirm which treaties are in force. Read 2026-09-09.

Which countries get the best rates

This is the same data as a picture, sorted from most to least generous, with the statutory rate you would pay without any treaty marked for comparison. It is the quickest way to see whether your country’s treaty is doing much for you.

Dividends (ordinary shareholding) — treaty rate against the 30% statutory rate

China

10% −20

Japan

10% −20

Mexico

10% −20

Canada

15% −15

France

15% −15

Germany

15% −15

Italy

15% −15

Korea

15% −15

Spain

15% −15

United Kingdom

15% −15

Philippines

25% −5

Brazil

30%

30% — statutory rate with no treaty relief. Brazil sits here because there is no income tax treaty at all.

The grey line is what the United States withholds with no treaty. Every bar to the left of it is the benefit that treaty actually delivers. Bars are sorted from most to least generous.

Note where the Philippines sits. Its treaty is the oldest in this set and brings dividend withholding from 30% only to 25% — a real saving, but far smaller than most people assume a treaty delivers. Brazil sits at the statutory rate because there is no treaty at all.

Where relief exists, and where it does not

A treaty rarely covers everything. Some have no reduced rate for large corporate holdings; some exempt interest entirely; some leave a class of royalty at the full rate. This matrix shows, at a glance, where relief exists across the four income types the lookup handles.

Where treaty relief exists, and where it does not

Country	Dividends	Dividends (large stake)	Interest	Royalties
Brazil	None	None	None	None
Canada	Reduced	Reduced	0%	0%
China	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced
France	Reduced	Reduced	0%	0%
Germany	Reduced	Reduced	0%	0%
Italy	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced	0%
Japan	Reduced	Reduced	0%	0%
Korea	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced
Mexico	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced
Philippines	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced
Spain	Reduced	Reduced	0%	0%
United Kingdom	Reduced	Reduced	0%	0%

0% means the treaty removes US withholding entirely. Reduced means a lower rate than the 30% statutory. None means the treaty has no provision — or, for Brazil, that there is no treaty. A dash means we have not yet verified that figure against a primary source and will not print a number we cannot cite.

Tax treaties and social security agreements are different

They are two separate networks, negotiated by different agencies, covering different lists of countries. Having one is no guarantee of the other.

This trips up more people than any other point on this page. Someone reads that their country “has an agreement with the United States”, assumes their investment income is protected, and is surprised by a 30% deduction months later.

Two separate networks, two separate lists of countries

Income tax treaty

Negotiated by Treasury, ratified by the Senate
Cuts withholding on dividends, interest and royalties
Decides which country taxes pensions and wages
Carries the savings clause and its exceptions
Claimed on Form W-8BEN, Form 8233 or Form 8833

Totalization agreement

Negotiated by the Social Security Administration
Stops you paying social security tax to both countries
Combines coverage credits so you qualify for a benefit
Does nothing whatsoever to income tax withholding
Evidenced by a certificate of coverage, not a tax form

The trap.People find one agreement, conclude their country “has a tax treaty with the US”, and plan around a withholding reduction that does not exist. The two networks cover different countries and different taxes, and neither implies the other.

Having one is no guarantee of the other. Brazil is the clearest case in this set: a social security agreement has been in force since 1 October 2018, and there has never been an income tax treaty.

Brazil is the live case in this set. A social security totalization agreement has been in force since 1 October 2018, and there has never been an income tax treaty. Both statements are true at once, and only one of them helps with withholding. More on totalization agreements.

What to do when there is no treaty

Plenty of countries have no US income tax treaty, and searching for one that does not exist is a common way to lose an afternoon. If that is your situation, here is what actually applies.

The 30% Chapter 3 statutory rate is the starting point for US-source FDAP income, before domestic-law exemptions. There is no reduced treaty rate to claim and no article to cite.
Form W-8BEN is still worth filing. It certifies that you are a foreign person, which stops backup withholding at a different rate. You simply leave the Part II treaty claim blank.
Who you are decides where relief comes from.A foreign person looks to their own country’s credit or exemption rules. A US taxpayer who paid foreign tax on the same income claims the US foreign tax crediton Form 1116 — that form is not a foreign recipient’s remedy for US withholding.
Some income may still be exempt under domestic law. Much US-source interest paid to foreign persons is exempt as portfolio interest whether or not a treaty exists.

Worked example — a Brazilian resident with US dividends

You live in Brazil and receive $10,000 of dividends from a US company. There is no treaty, so the United States withholds 30% — $3,000 — and you receive $7,000. Brazil taxes the dividend too. You do not get the $3,000 back from the IRS by claiming a treaty rate, because there is no treaty rate — and Form 1116 is not your form, it is how a US taxpayer credits foreign tax. Your relief comes from Brazil, under Brazilian rules for crediting foreign tax on the same income. It is real, but it arrives later and from the other government.

The savings clause, and the exceptions that matter

The savings clause lets the United States tax its own citizens and residents as though the treaty did not exist. The exceptions that follow it are the part that decides real cases.

Nearly every US treaty contains one. Its practical effect is that most treaty benefits are unavailable to US citizens and green-card holders — which is exactly the group that most often goes looking for them.

But every savings clause is followed by a list of articles that survive it, and that list is where the useful detail lives. Two examples from this set, both cited to the article:

Treaty	What the exception says	Practical effect
China	The protocol excepts Articles 19 and 20 for residents, while reserving the right to tax citizens outright.	A Chinese student who becomes a resident alien keeps the $5,000 carve-out. Naturalising ends it.
Canada	Article XXIX(3)(b) preserves Article XX only for people who are neither citizens of, nor have immigrant status in, the taxing state.	A Canadian student who gets a green card loses the exemption immediately.

Same situation, opposite outcomes, and the difference is one qualifying phrase in each treaty. This is why a general answer about “the savings clause” is not much use — you have to read the exceptions in your own treaty.

How you actually claim a benefit

Four forms do almost all the work, and which one you need depends on the kind of income rather than on which treaty you are using.

From income type to the form that claims relief

Foreign individual — dividends, interest or royalties

Form W-8BEN

→ Your broker, bank or payer

Withholding reduced at source. Nothing filed with the IRS by you. Line 10 is generally not needed for ordinary interest or dividends.

Foreign entity — company, partnership or trust

Form W-8BEN-E

→ The payer

The entity version, and the one that carries an ownership-based preferential dividend rate.

US citizen or resident alien, including a green-card holder

Form W-9

→ The payer

Certifies US status. It asks for no treaty article. Any treaty exception for a US person is handled under the applicable form instructions, not on a W-8BEN.

Foreign individual — pay for personal services

Form 8233

→ Your employer or payer

Withholding reduced or removed on personal-services income covered by the treaty.

A position that overrides the tax code

Form 8833

→ The IRS, with your return

Attached to Form 1040-NR or 1040 — where disclosure is not waived. Section 6712 charges $1,000 on each failure, with a reasonable-cause waiver.

US taxpayer — foreign tax already paid on the same income

Form 1116

→ The IRS, with your return

A credit for qualifying foreign taxes. This is a US taxpayer's form; it is not how a foreign recipient recovers US withholding.

A treaty benefit is not automatic. Something has to be given to somebody before the rate changes.

What each form asks for differs, and this is where people over-prepare or under-prepare. On Form W-8BEN, line 9 names your country of residence for treaty purposes; the special-conditions line is generally not applicable to an ordinary interest or dividend claim. It must be completed for royalties where the treaty splits rates by class, for students and researchers, for business profits not attributable to a permanent establishment, for remittance-based claims, and for dividends at a preferential rate based on ownership. Form W-9 asks for no treaty article at all. Form 8833, where disclosure is required, does want the country and the specific article.

Form 8833 has a penalty attached

Where a treaty position overrides the tax code, disclosure on Form 8833 is mandatory, and failing to file carries a $1,000 penalty for an individual. Not every treaty claim needs one — but assuming yours does not is an expensive way to be wrong.

The twelve countries in the lookup

These twelve are the treaties in the data set behind the lookup. Their rates, article citations and conditional tiers are all live in the tool above. Dedicated pages for each country — residency tie-breakers, student and researcher provisions, savings-clause exceptions and country-specific traps — are being written and are not published yet, so the names below are not yet links.

US–BrazilNO TREATY

What applies instead, and the agreement people mistake for a treaty

US–Canada

In force since 1985 · 5 protocols

US–China

In force since 1987 · 2 protocols

US–France

In force since 1996 · 2 protocols

US–Germany

In force since 1990 · 1 protocol

US–Italy

In force since 2010 · 1 protocol

US–Japan

In force since 2004 · 2 protocols

US–Korea

In force since 1980 · 0 protocols

US–Mexico

In force since 1994 · 2 protocols

US–Philippines

In force since 1983 · 0 protocols

US–Spain

In force since 1991 · 1 protocol

US–United Kingdom

In force since 2003 · 1 protocol

Looking for India? The India–US position is covered in depth on nritousa.com, which handles the Indian side of the picture as well as the US side.

We cover 11 in-force treaties plus Brazil, where there is none. For any other country, the IRS treaty tables list every treaty in force.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if the US has a tax treaty with my country?

Use the lookup at the top of this page. The United States has income tax treaties with roughly 65 countries. Twelve of them are in the lookup above, with their rates, authorising articles and conditional tiers. If your country is not among them, that does not mean there is no treaty — only that it is not yet in this data set. Check the IRS treaty tables for the full list.

What is the savings clause, and why does it matter?

Almost every US tax treaty contains a savings clause letting the United States tax its own citizens and residents as if the treaty did not exist. It claws back most benefits for the people who most expect to use them. What matters far more than the clause itself is the short list of exceptions that follows it — the articles that survive. Those exceptions are why a Chinese student keeps a treaty benefit after becoming a resident alien, and why a Canadian student loses one after getting a green card.

What happens if there is no tax treaty with my country?

No treaty rate is available, so the 30% Chapter 3 statutory rate is the starting point for US-source FDAP income — before any domestic-law exemption, several of which apply regardless of any treaty. What happens next depends on who you are. A foreign personreceiving US income looks to their own country’s rules for a credit or exemption; there is no US form that gives it back. A US taxpayer who paid foreign tax on the same income claims the US foreign tax credit on Form 1116. Brazil is the clearest no-treaty case in this set.

Is a totalization agreement the same as a tax treaty?

No, and confusing the two is one of the most common and most costly mistakes here. An income tax treaty cuts withholding on investment income and decides which country taxes wages and pensions. A totalization agreement deals only with social security — it stops you paying into two systems on the same earnings and lets you combine credits toward a benefit. The two networks cover different lists of countries, and having one is no guarantee of the other.

How do I actually claim a tax treaty benefit?

It depends on the income. For dividends, interest and royalties you give Form W-8BEN to your broker or payer, not to the IRS, and the rate drops at source. For pay for personal services you use Form 8233. For a position that overrides the tax code you file Form 8833 with your return. All of them ask for the treaty country and the specific article, which is what the lookup above gives you.

Do I need an ITIN or SSN to claim a treaty rate?

Not universally — it depends on the payment and the form. A US TIN (an SSN or ITIN) is required in specific cases named in the Form W-8BEN instructions, such as claiming a section 871(f) exemption for certain annuities or giving the form to a partnership conducting a US trade or business. For many treaty claims a foreign TIN on the form is what is called for instead, and the instructions carry their own exceptions — including for holders of certain actively traded securities and investment products, for residents of jurisdictions that do not issue TINs, and for US territory residents. Work out which number your particular payment and form require before assuming you need an ITIN. If you do need one, Form W-7 is normally attached to the return it is needed for, with exceptions permitting a standalone application.

Does a tax treaty reduce my state tax too?

Usually not. Tax treaties are agreements between national governments and bind the federal government. States are not parties to them, and several — California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania among them — do not follow federal treaty exemptions. Income that is exempt on your federal return can still be fully taxable by the state you live in.

Why do different websites give different rates for the same treaty?

Because most treaties have been amended by protocols, and the amended article replaces the original outright. Canada is the clearest case: the base 1980 text sets interest at 15%, the 1995 protocol cut it to 10%, and the 2007 protocol deleted the article entirely and replaced it with an exemption. All three figures are citable to a real government document, and only the last one — 0% — is current. Every rate on this site names the protocol it comes from for exactly this reason.

Where these figures come from

Every rate on this site is read from the treaty text or an amending protocol published by the IRS or the US Treasury, and every one carries the article that authorises it. We do not publish a figure we cannot cite — where a field has not been verified, the page says so rather than showing a number.

This matters more than it sounds. IRS summary tables lag the treaties they summarise, and the IRS document library serves superseded texts for several countries: the Japan file is the 1971 convention when the operative treaty is from 2003, and the Italy file is the 1984 convention when the operative treaty is from 1999. Reading the wrong document produces confident, wrong answers.

Source: IRS — United States income tax treaties A to Z. Read 2026-09-09.
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury — Tax treaties. Read 2026-09-09.
Source: IRS — Tax withholding types: NRA withholding. Read 2026-09-09.

Read the editorial methodology for how figures on this site are sourced and reviewed.

Next steps

Form 8833

When you must disclose a treaty position, and what to write on each line

Educational information, not tax advice

Every rate and article on this page is cited to the treaty text it comes from, so you or your accountant can check it. Treaty provisions turn on facts we do not know about you — residency, beneficial ownership, limitation-on-benefits conditions and the savings clause can all change the answer. Read the article before you rely on the number, and take advice on anything material.