I'm a UK citizen tax resident in Singapore. I'm not a US passport holder nor have I ever lived or worked in the US.
I work for a US public company in Singapore. Part of my total compensation is company stock. When we were acquired by another US public company in November 2023, some portion of my stock holdings were converted to cash, which the broker decided to disburse as a special dividend. This meant that I incurred a 30% withholding tax on the cash portion of that income – income for which I pay income tax in Singapore. More than 50% of the company employees are non-US tax residents so this impacts a lot of us.
What I would like to know is:
1) Is it even possible to reclaim this withholding tax? My understanding is that we would need to register an ITIN (W-7 form) and then file a tax return (1040NR form) form and then file for a refund (?).
2) Is this something Turbotax can do for us? Or is there an easy way to get help filing US tax forms (filing tax is not something most of us have ever had to do before, especially nothing as complex as US tax forms).
Thanks
