Recovering Foreign Taxes from dividends

[Mike_WW]

Hi. I am an individual investor and own foreign stocks.  Every tax year, Germany takes out 26.375% in foreign taxes instead of the customary 15%. 

How can I recover the lost 11.375%.  Is this process easy to do myself??

Are there any companies out there that I can hire to help me recover these foreign taxes?

Thanks..

[Stinkerbellkity]

US tax law is not designed to help you with recovering higher tax paid to a foreign county.  It i designed to keep you  from paying tax to both countries.  You can only take a tax credit for foreign tax paid, up to the amount of US tax you would have paid on the same income.  To the extent that you pay higher tax elsewhere, that difference is not recoverable on your US tax return.