Your New US Brokerage Account Just Asked You For A W-8BEN. Or A W-9. Which Is It?
You finished opening an account at a US broker. Before any trade clears, the broker stops the process to ask you for one of two forms: a W-8BEN if their system thinks you are a non-US person, or a W-9 if they think you are a US person. The form decides whether your US dividends get withheld at 30% (the punitive default for foreigners), 25% (the Israel-US treaty rate), or 0% at source (the US-person path, with US income tax handled later via your Form 1040). Which one applies has nothing to do with where you live; it depends entirely on whether you hold a US passport or Green Card. This article maps both populations.
Cross-border disclaimer
In short
- Two populations, two forms. Non-US-citizen olim (Israeli-born, UK/Canada/SA olim, naturalized-Israeli-only) file W-8BEN to claim treaty rates on US-source income. US-citizen olim (including dual citizens who never renounced) file W-9 and do not claim treaty rates; the treaty saving-clause excludes US persons6.
- Dividends drop 30% to 25%. The default US withholding on US-source dividends paid to a foreign individual is 30% under IRC §14414; the Israel-US Treaty Article 10 caps the rate at 25% for Israeli treaty residents7. A correctly filed W-8BEN drops the withholding from 30% to 25% on every dividend payment going forward.
- Interest drops to 17.5% or 10%. Israel-US Treaty Article 11 caps US withholding on interest at 17.5% generally, and 10% on interest paid by US banks7. Portfolio interest is often fully exempt under §871(h) before treaty.
- Validity is calendar-year + three full years. A W-8BEN signed in March 2026 expires 31 December 20292. The form must be re-signed before expiry; Israeli brokers often nudge clients; US-direct brokers usually do not.
- The Israeli side closes the loop. Under פקודת מס הכנסה (Pekudat Mas Hachnasa) §§ 199-210, the 25% US tax withheld at source is creditable against the Israeli 25% capital-gains/dividend tax via the foreign-tax-credit mechanism910. Net effective rate is 25%, not 50%.
Two Reader Populations, Two Different Articles On One Page
Olim split into two W-8BEN populations along the US-citizen line. The form you file is decided by the outcome of the US-person test under IRC §7701(a)(30), not by where you live or where your broker is domiciled. Get this wrong and the broker treats your account in a way that triggers either unnecessary withholding (W-9 filed where W-8BEN was the matching form) or an IRS misrepresentation flag (filed W-8BEN when you are actually a US person).
Population A, Non-US-citizen olim (W-8BEN territory)
This is most olim from the UK, Canada, South Africa, France, Australia, and the large group of Israeli-born returning olim and naturalized Israelis who never held US citizenship or a Green Card. For this population the W-8BEN form is the standard cross-border move: it tells the US broker you are a foreign (non-US) person, you are claiming Israeli tax residency under the 1975 US-Israel Treaty (with 1993 Protocol), and you want the treaty rates instead of the 30% statutory default1.
What changes for this population once W-8BEN is on file:
- US-source dividends are withheld at 25% (Article 10 treaty rate) instead of 30% (statutory default).
- US-source interest is withheld at 17.5% (or 10% for bank interest, or 0% for portfolio interest under §871(h)) instead of 30%.
- The broker reports the income on a Form 1042-S at year-end (not a 1099-DIV). 1042-S is what you give your Israeli accountant for the Israeli return.
- The broker may still flag US-situs assets for estate-tax purposes (that is a separate regime covered in US Estate Tax Exposure for American Olim). W-8BEN does not solve the $60,000 estate-tax trap.
Population B, US-citizen olim (W-9 territory)
US citizens at birth, naturalized US citizens, and Green Card holders are US persons for tax purposes for life, regardless of physical residence, under IRC §7701(a)(30) and the Substantial Presence Test machinery in Publication 519. The W-8BEN question for this population is moot: the form is reserved for non-US persons claiming treaty benefits, and US persons cannot claim treaty benefits on US-source income because of the treaty's "saving clause": Article 6 of the 1975 US-Israel convention, which preserves the US right to tax its citizens as if the treaty were not in effect7.
For this population the relevant form at a US broker is Form W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification), which establishes your US-person status, captures your SSN or ITIN, and tells the broker to issue a 1099-DIV / 1099-INT at year-end instead of a 1042-S3. There is no withholding on US-source dividends or interest paid to a US person; you pay the tax later, on your Form 1040, at ordinary or qualified-dividend rates. The Israeli side then runs the foreign-tax-credit mechanism in the opposite direction: the US tax you pay on the income (computed on Form 1040) is creditable against Israeli tax owed on the same income, under Pekudat Mas Hachnasa §§ 199-210 and the treaty's relief article9.
A common dual-citizen mistake: a US-Israeli dual citizen, freshly arrived in Israel, fills out the W-8BEN in the broker's onboarding form because the question reads "are you a US tax resident?" and the literal answer feels like "no, I live in Israel now." The broker accepts the form. The IRS treats W-8BEN filed by a US person as a misrepresentation of US-person status, which is a Form 1040 issue, an FBAR issue, and a backup-withholding issue all at once. If you hold a US passport, you file W-9. Always.
The Central Reference Table
One row per form, what it does, what it costs, and what it does not solve. Every figure is current to 2025–2026 per the cited IRS publications and the 1975 treaty with its 1993 Protocol; verify before acting.
| Form | Who files it | What it does | Dividend rate | Interest rate | Validity | Renewal mechanics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W-8BEN Beneficial Owner | Non-US-citizen olim (no US passport, no Green Card) holding US-source assets | Claims Israel-US treaty rates; certifies non-US person status; identifies the Israeli TIN for FATCA matching | 25% (Treaty Article 10) vs 30% default7 | 17.5% general; 10% bank-paid (Treaty Article 11); 0% portfolio interest under §871(h)4 | Signed year + three full calendar years2 | Israeli broker often auto-prompts; a US-direct broker requires manual re-upload |
| W-9 US Person TIN | US-citizen olim (incl. dual citizens) and Green Card holders | Certifies US-person status; provides SSN/ITIN; suppresses backup withholding; results in 1099 reporting instead of 1042-S | 0% withholding at source; full US income tax due on Form 1040 | 0% withholding at source; ordinary or §871(h) treatment | Indefinite; only re-signed on a change of name, TIN, or address3 | None; submit a fresh W-9 on data change |
| W-8BEN-E Entity version | Non-US entities (an Israeli LP, foreign trust, foreign corporation), not individuals | Same purpose as W-8BEN, applied to entity treaty claims and FATCA classification | Treaty rates per Article 10 / 12.5% for qualifying corporate shareholders7 | Treaty rates per Article 11 | Signed year + three full calendar years8 | Manual re-upload; entity-side review often required |
| No form filed | A non-US-citizen oleh who never returned the W-8BEN to the broker | Broker applies the 30% statutory default and pays the full withholding to the IRS; no treaty rate, no credit on the Israeli side beyond the 25% domestic credit cap | 30% (statutory default)4 | 30% (statutory default) | N/A | The 5-percentage-point excess (30% withheld minus 25% Israeli credit cap) is effectively unrecoverable on the Israeli return |
What The Israel-US Treaty Actually Says (Articles 4, 10, 11)
Three treaty articles do the work. They sit inside the 1975 US-Israel Income Tax Convention and its 1993 Protocol, the same treaty that handles the Foreign Tax Credit on the income side67. Each one decides a different question.
Article 4, Residency Tie-Breaker
Article 4 decides which country gets to call you a "treaty resident" when both countries could plausibly claim you. It is the gateway article: without Article 4 residency in Israel, no other Article delivers a treaty rate to you. The tie-breaker tests apply in order: permanent home, then center of vital interests, then habitual abode, then citizenship, then competent-authority procedure7. For a typical oleh who has fully relocated (Israeli apartment, Israeli salary, Israeli family), Article 4 lands them as Israeli treaty residents from the aliyah date forward. The W-8BEN line that asks for "country of tax residency" expects the Article 4 answer, and "Israel" is the correct entry once you have made aliyah; entering "US" because you still hold a US passport is the wrong line of the form.
Article 10, Dividends (the 25% rate)
Article 10 of the 1975 convention caps US withholding on dividends paid to an Israeli treaty resident at 25% for portfolio dividends paid to individuals, and at 12.5% for dividends paid to certain qualifying corporate shareholders (substantial ownership thresholds and holding-period rules apply, per the 1993 Protocol)75. The 25% individual rate is what a W-8BEN delivers to a typical oleh with a US brokerage holding US-domiciled shares or US-domiciled index ETFs. The 12.5% corporate rate is rarely relevant to retail olim.
Article 11, Interest (the 17.5% / 10% rates)
Article 11 caps US withholding on interest paid to an Israeli treaty resident at 17.5% generally, and at 10% for interest paid by a bank or financial institution on a deposit7. In practice, most US-source interest received by olim is portfolio interest on US Treasury bonds or US corporate bonds, which is already exempt from withholding under IRC §871(h) before the treaty rate ever applies4. The treaty rate is the floor; §871(h) often pushes the actual withholding to zero on bond coupons. Bank-deposit interest paid by a US bank to a foreign depositor is also exempt under §871(i) in most fact patterns.
Worked Example 1: Non-US-Citizen Oleh, $50,000 in a US-Domiciled S&P 500 ETF at a US-Direct Broker
Take a 38-year-old Canadian-born oleh who made aliyah in 2022, naturalized as Israeli in 2024, never held US citizenship, and holds $50,000 of a US-domiciled, dividend-distributing S&P 500 ETF at a US-direct broker. The arithmetic below runs on a distribution rate of 1.4% a year for that particular fund, so annual gross dividends are ~$700. Substitute your own fund's distribution rate if it differs. Two scenarios:
Scenario A, W-8BEN on file
- US withholding at source: 25% (Treaty Article 10) 7 = $175 withheld, $525 paid to the oleh's brokerage account.
- Broker year-end statement: Form 1042-S showing $700 gross dividend, $175 withheld.
- Israeli side: Israeli dividend tax is 25% under the Israeli Income Tax Ordinance for individuals12. Gross Israeli tax on $700 = $175. Foreign-tax-credit under Pekudat Mas Hachnasa §§ 199-210 = $175 (the US tax withheld). Net Israeli tax owed = zero10.
- Combined effective rate: 25%, the same as if the dividend had been an Israeli-source dividend.
Scenario B, No W-8BEN filed (broker applies 30% default)
- US withholding at source: 30% (statutory default) 4 = $210 withheld, $490 paid to the brokerage account.
- Israeli side: Gross Israeli tax on $700 = $175. The foreign-tax-credit mechanism caps the credit at the lower of (a) actual foreign tax paid or (b) Israeli tax on the same income9. The credit is capped at $175 (the 25% Israeli rate ceiling) even though $210 was withheld. The extra $35 (5 percentage points) is not recoverable on the Israeli return. Net Israeli tax owed = zero, but the oleh kept only $490 net out of $700 gross.
- Combined effective rate: 30%, a 5-percentage-point drag on every US dividend forever.
On a $50,000 position the absolute drag is small, just $35/year. Scale up to a $500,000 portfolio at the same 1.4% distribution rate ($7,000 gross dividends) and the unrecoverable annual drag is $350. Over 20 years of compounding (assuming the drag is reinvested at 7%) the cumulative cost of "forgot to file W-8BEN" runs into five figures. The form takes ten minutes; the recurring cost of skipping it does not.
On sale of the ETF. When the oleh later sells the position at a gain, the US side imposes no capital-gains withholding on a non-US-person's sale of US-listed equities (US capital-gains tax for nonresident-aliens only applies to certain US-real-property holding companies and to dispositions effectively connected with a US trade or business). The full gain is taxed on the Israeli side at the 25% capital-gains rate under Israeli Income Tax Ordinance § 89, with no foreign-tax-credit needed because no US tax was levied. This is the clean part of the cross-border picture.
Worked Example 2: US-Citizen Oleh, the Same $50,000 US-Domiciled S&P 500 ETF Position
Now take a US-citizen oleh: say, a 41-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen who made aliyah in 2023, holds the same $50,000 US-domiciled S&P 500 ETF position at a US-direct broker. That broker requires the W-9, not the W-8BEN. Same $700 gross dividend.
The W-9 path (Population B)
- US withholding at source: zero; a US broker does not withhold on US-source dividends paid to a US person3.
- Broker year-end statement: Form 1099-DIV showing $700 gross dividend, $0 withheld. This goes into the Form 1040 stack.
- US tax on Form 1040: qualified dividends from a US-domiciled S&P 500 ETF are taxed at the long-term capital-gains rates: 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on the oleh's worldwide taxable income. For a typical oleh in the 15% bracket, US tax = $105.
- Israeli side: the same $700 dividend is also taxable in Israel at the 25% domestic dividend rate12 = $175. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE, Form 2555) does not apply to dividend income, only to earned income. The relevant mechanism here is the Foreign Tax Credit claimed on Israeli return via Form Doch Shenati, crediting the $105 US tax against the $175 Israeli tax. Net Israeli tax owed = $7010.
- Combined effective rate: 25% ($175 total), same as the Population A outcome, but the cash-flow timing is different (US tax paid in April with the 1040; Israeli tax paid with the Doch Shenati).
The W-9 path also brings FBAR + FATCA + (for Israeli-side pooled funds) PFIC into the picture, none of which a Population A oleh faces. The compliance calendar for that lives at FBAR, FATCA, and Form 8938: A US Citizen's Compliance Calendar in Israel. The W-9 is the door into that calendar; the W-8BEN never opens it.
How long is a W-8BEN valid and how do you renew it?
A W-8BEN is valid from the date it is signed through the last day of the third full calendar year following the year of signature2. A form signed on 15 March 2026 expires 31 December 2029. The broker must hold a valid W-8BEN at the time of each payment, or it falls back to the 30% statutory default automatically. The renewal patterns diverge sharply between broker types:
- Israeli brokerage houses and bank brokerage desks collect the form inside their own onboarding flow and pass it upstream to their US correspondent. What happens at expiry is not uniform: some send a reminder and pre-populate a fresh form from the record on file, some send nothing, and where a reminder exists it may land only in the secure- message inbox. Treat the renewal as yours to track and ask your broker in writing what it does at expiry.
- US-direct brokers handle the W-8BEN as a self-service form. They generally send an email reminder before expiry, but the burden is on the client to log in, complete the new form, e-sign, and upload. Forms not refreshed by 31 December of the expiry year revert the account to 30% withholding on 1 January of the following year, and the broker is under no obligation to chase you a second time.
- European cross-border brokers that give olim access to US-listed equities through a US correspondent typically rely on the European entity to collect the W-8BEN once and pass it through; renewal cycles follow that entity's onboarding cadence, which sometimes lags the US-direct pattern above.
The renewal trap surfaces most often around the four-year mark after aliyah: the oleh signed the W-8BEN at broker onboarding in their first year in Israel, never looked at the broker's secure-message inbox again, and discovers a quietly elevated withholding rate on their 1042-S two years later. The fix is mechanical (file a fresh W-8BEN, request the broker to backdate where the broker's policy allows, claim the over-withheld amount on the Israeli return as foreign tax up to the 25% cap), but the avoidance is even more mechanical: calendar the expiry the moment the form is filed.
How does the Israeli foreign tax credit close the loop?
Once the US side has withheld, the Israeli side has to close the loop or the entire treaty mechanism falls apart. The relevant Israeli statute is Pekudat Mas Hachnasa §§ 199-210 (the foreign tax credit chapter), which gives an Israeli treaty resident a credit against Israeli tax for foreign tax paid on the same income10. The credit is computed per income category ("basket") and capped at the Israeli tax that would otherwise be due on that income.
The mechanics that matter for an oleh:
- The credit is claimed on the Israeli דוח שנתי (Doch Shenati) (annual return), specifically on Form 1301 with the foreign-income schedule. The 1042-S from the US broker is the supporting document.
- The credit ceiling is the Israeli rate, not the US rate. For dividends withheld at 25% (with W-8BEN), the credit equals the withholding and Israeli tax owed is zero. For dividends withheld at 30% (no W-8BEN), the credit is capped at 25%; the extra 5 percentage points are not recoverable in Israel9.
- The Israeli authorities accept the 1042-S as primary evidence of US tax paid; an oleh who lost the 1042-S can usually retrieve it from the broker's tax-document portal at any time within seven years.
- For US-citizen olim, the same § 200 mechanism credits US tax paid on Form 1040 against Israeli tax on the same income. The 1040 itself, with the dividend-income schedule, is the supporting document on this side.
Olim under the 10-year foreign-income exemption for new and returning residents face a wrinkle: during the exemption period, US-source dividends and interest are exempt from Israeli tax under § 14(a) of the Income Tax Ordinance, which means there is no Israeli tax to credit the US withholding against, so the US 25% becomes a real, unrecovered cost during the exemption window. From 1 January 2026, the 2026 reporting reform requires the income to be reported on the Israeli return even when not taxed, but the underlying exemption survives for affected years. The interaction between the 10-year exemption and the W-8BEN treaty rate is a CPA conversation, not a self-direction case.
What are the most common W-8BEN onboarding mistakes?
Five mistakes account for most of the W-8BEN problems olim run into. None of them is difficult to avoid once flagged.
1. Dual citizen filing W-8BEN instead of W-9
The single most common mistake. A dual US-Israeli citizen reads "country of tax residence" on the W-8BEN onboarding question, answers "Israel" because they live in Israel now, and submits the form. The IRS treats this as a misrepresentation of US-person status: a Form 1040 issue, an FBAR issue, and a backup-withholding issue. The Israeli broker may also report the account under FATCA as a non-US-person account when the correct FATCA classification was US-person11. Fix: replace the W-8BEN with a W-9 the moment the mistake is realized, and take cross-border advice on whether the IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures fit if the misclassification ran across multiple years.
2. Filing W-9 as a non-US-citizen oleh because the broker asked for an SSN
The mirror mistake. A non-US-citizen oleh holding US-source assets through a US broker is sometimes asked for an SSN or ITIN by the broker's onboarding software. If the oleh does not have one (and most non-US-citizen olim do not), the correct answer is to provide the Israeli TIN (teudat zehut number) on the W-8BEN, not to file W-9. W-9 is a US-person certification; using it without US-person status is itself a misrepresentation.
3. Letting the form expire silently
Covered in the renewal section above. The form's three-year-plus-calendar-year validity is not on the broker's main interface; it lives in the tax-documents section that most users never visit. Calendar the expiry the day you file. The broker is not obliged to chase you twice.
4. Treating W-8BEN as a one-time form across all US accounts
A W-8BEN is filed per broker, per account, not centrally with the IRS. An oleh holding positions at three different brokers needs a separate W-8BEN on file at each of them. The forms do not interlink; filing at one broker does nothing for the next.
5. Confusing W-8BEN with W-8BEN-E
W-8BEN-E is the entity version of the form, intended for foreign corporations, partnerships, trusts, and other non-individual beneficial owners8. Olim filing for a personal account always use W-8BEN, the individual form. The W-8BEN-E surfaces only when an oleh holds assets through an Israeli chevra ba'am, an Israeli partnership, or a foreign trust they set up before aliyah; the cross-border attorney working on that structure handles the form.
Cross-References Within Meidahon
The W-8BEN piece sits inside the broader cross-border compliance picture. The directly adjacent reading on Meidahon:
- FBAR, FATCA, and Form 8938: A US Citizen's Compliance Calendar in Israel , the lifetime annual filings that surface every Israeli account for US-citizen olim. W-8BEN is irrelevant for that population; this is the article they read instead.
- Will Uncle Sam Tax Your Estate? US Estate Tax Exposure for American Olim , the death-side cross-border picture, which W-8BEN does not solve. A non-US-citizen oleh holding a US-domiciled equity ETF still faces the $60,000 estate-tax trap on the same position W-8BEN cleaned up the dividend withholding on.
- US-Israel Tax Treaty: A Practical Guide for American Olim , the income-tax treaty, broader than just W-8BEN: covers FTC mechanics, residency tie-breakers, and the saving clause in detail.
- W-8BEN (Hebrew term explainer), the Hebrew-side reference for the form itself. Shorter, aimed at Hebrew-reading dual citizens.
- FBAR (Hebrew term explainer), the Hebrew-side reference for the FBAR companion filing US-citizen olim run alongside the W-9.
- Irish-domiciled UCITS ETFs (Hebrew term explainer) , the standard non-US-citizen oleh's structural fix for the same US-domiciled ETF positions discussed in this article, which avoids US estate-tax exposure on top of the W-8BEN withholding fix.
The form you file depends entirely on your passport. Non-US-citizen olim file W-8BEN at every US broker to claim the Israel-US Treaty Article 10 rate of 25% on dividends (down from the 30% statutory default), and the form expires after the signing year plus three full calendar years. US-citizen olim and Green Card holders file W-9 instead; they never claim treaty rates on US-source income because the treaty's saving clause excludes US persons. The Israeli foreign-tax-credit mechanism under Pekudat Mas Hachnasa §§ 199-210 closes the loop on the Israeli side.
No. As a US citizen you file W-9, not W-8BEN, for life, regardless of where you live. The W-8BEN is for non-US persons claiming Israel-US Treaty rates on US-source income, and the 1975 treaty's saving clause (Article 6) preserves the US right to tax its citizens as if the treaty were not in effect7. Submitting W-8BEN as a US person misstates your status to the withholding agent, and the same certification drives how the broker classifies the account for FATCA reporting11, which puts your Form 1040, FBAR and backup-withholding position in play at once. If you already submitted W-8BEN by mistake, replace it with W-9 immediately and consult a cross-border CPA about the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures if the misclassification ran across multiple years.
The W-8BEN drops US withholding on US-source dividends from 30% (statutory default under IRC §1441) to 25% (Israel-US Treaty Article 10 rate)47. On a $50,000 US-domiciled S&P 500 ETF position yielding ~1.4%, that is roughly $35/year in immediate saving. More importantly, the 30% default exceeds the 25% Israeli foreign-tax-credit ceiling, so the extra 5 percentage points are not recoverable on your Israeli Doch Shenati; they are a pure drag. W-8BEN converts the entire 25% Israeli tax obligation into a foreign-tax credit, so your net Israeli tax owed on the dividend is zero.
A W-8BEN is valid from the date of signature through the last day of the third full calendar year following the year of signature2. A form signed in March 2026 expires 31 December 2029. The broker reverts to the 30% statutory default on 1 January of the following year if no fresh form is filed. Israeli brokers often prompt for renewal; US-direct brokers usually do not chase a second time. Calendar the expiry the day you file.
Article 11 of the 1975 US-Israel Convention caps US withholding on interest paid to an Israeli treaty resident at 17.5% generally and 10% on interest paid by a US bank on a deposit7. In practice, most US-source interest received by non-US-person olim is portfolio interest on US Treasury bonds or qualifying US corporate bonds, which is already exempt from US withholding under IRC §871(h) before the treaty rate ever applies4. So the actual rate is often zero on bond coupons; the treaty 17.5% is the ceiling for the residual categories.
Mechanically the form still works: the broker still applies the 25% rate instead of 30%. But the Israeli foreign-tax-credit mechanism does not refund the 25% to you, because during the 10-year exemption window your US-source dividends are exempt from Israeli tax under Israeli Income Tax Ordinance § 14(a), so there is no Israeli tax to credit the US withholding against. The 25% US tax is a real, unrecoverable cost during the exemption window9. From 1 January 2026, the reporting reform requires the income to be reported on the Israeli return even when not taxed, but the underlying exemption survives for affected years. The interaction is a cross-border CPA conversation.
W-8BEN is the individual form, for foreign individuals claiming treaty benefits on their own US-source income1. W-8BEN-E is the entity form, for foreign corporations, partnerships, trusts, and other non-individual beneficial owners8. Personal accounts always use W-8BEN. W-8BEN-E surfaces only when you hold US-source assets through an Israeli chevra ba'am, an Israeli partnership, or a foreign trust. If the broker offered both, the choice is W-8BEN for a personal account; W-8BEN-E is wrong.
Because W-8BEN solves the dividend-withholding problem but does not solve the US estate-tax problem. A US-domiciled equity ETF is stock in a US investment company, which IRC §2104 places inside a non-US-citizen's US-situs estate, so a position above $60,000 at death triggers US Form 706-NA exposure. How much of a US-domiciled bond fund is caught is more fact-specific, because §2105 leaves a nonresident's US bank deposits and portfolio-interest debt out of the US-situs estate when they are held directly; the linked estate-tax article works the categories through. An Irish-domiciled fund is outside the US-situs list altogether, which is what removes the estate trap. Two cautions before treating the swap as like-for-like. First, Irish domicile says nothing about what a fund holds: Irish UCITS funds track thousands of different indices, so your exposure is unchanged only if you buy the Irish fund tracking the index you already own. Second, the Irish route does not make US withholding vanish. An equity fund still absorbs US withholding on its US dividends inside the fund under the Ireland-US treaty, and that fund-level tax is not something an Israeli investor can credit on a Doch Shenati; a fund holding US Treasuries has no dividend withholding in play either way, since coupon interest is portfolio interest exempt under §871(h) as above. For non-US-citizen olim with positions above ~$60,000, the structural fix is an Irish-domiciled fund on the matching index, not just a W-8BEN on a US-domiciled one. See US Estate Tax Exposure for American Olim for the full picture.
You still file it, but the Israeli broker often presents the form in their own onboarding flow rather than routing you to the US-payer's flow. Israeli brokers that hold US-listed equities for clients typically pass through a single W-8BEN upstream to their US correspondent (which handles the actual withholding to the IRS). Practically, you fill out and sign the form once with the Israeli broker; they handle the upstream routing. Verify the details with your own broker: the handling flow for clients holding US equities differs from one Israeli broker to the next.
Two paths. First, ask the broker whether their policy allows backdated correction: some brokers will re-issue a corrected 1042-S once a fresh W-8BEN is on file, returning the 5-percentage-point excess directly to your account. Second, if the broker will not backdate, the over-withheld amount becomes foreign tax paid for Israeli foreign-tax-credit purposes on your Doch Shenati, but credited only up to the 25% Israeli ceiling10. The 5-point excess (30% withheld vs 25% credited) is effectively lost unless the broker corrects. The third, slower path is to file a US Form 1040-NR claim for the over-withheld amount as a refund directly to the IRS, which most olim do not pursue because of the filing complexity for a small dollar recovery.
Under whichever treaty you are an Article 4 treaty resident of. If you have made aliyah and are an Israeli resident under Article 4 of the Israel-US treaty (permanent home in Israel, center of vital interests in Israel), you file the W-8BEN claiming the Israel-US Treaty rates: 25% on dividends, 17.5% on interest. If you are still primarily UK-resident at the time of opening the US broker account, the UK-US Treaty applies; its rates differ (the UK-US treaty gives 15% on dividends in many cases) and the form refers to it explicitly. The line on W-8BEN asking for "country of tax residency" is the Article 4 answer, not the citizenship answer. If both treaties could plausibly apply, verify with a cross-border CPA before filing.