I've held shares in a few foreign companies before. Withholding depends on which country the stock is traded in. If I recall correctly, there is no withholding for UK stocks owned by US citizens. Most other European countries do withhold from dividend payments. The rate of withholding varies. An interesting wrinkle to this is that the US has tax treaties with many of these countries that sometimes sets the tax rate owed lower than the withholding rate. This means the country might withhold 20% from dividends (because this is the rate their own citizens will pay), while the tax treaty might say US citizens only owe 15%. The foreign tax credit you can claim on your US tax return is limited to the treaty amount. If you want the extra 5% back, you have to file the appropriate paperwork with foreign tax authorities. Totally not worth it for the amount of stock a typical person might own. This is one of many reasons why I now strongly prefer owning index funds over individual stocks; they can easily afford to file the paperwork once for everyone's shares.
