Which Countries Have Tax Treaties With the US: Full List

Roughly 65 countries have income tax treaties with the United States, spanning most of Europe, major Asian and Pacific economies, Canada and Mexico, and a scattered set of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. A separate and much smaller group of countries has estate and gift tax treaties (12) or social security totalization agreements (30) with the U.S. Each treaty is negotiated individually by the Treasury Department, so rates, exemptions, and covered income types vary from one country to the next.

Full List of Income Tax Treaty Countries

The IRS keeps the official roster. Countries currently listed with income tax treaties in force are:

Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan
Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus (partially suspended), Belgium, Bulgaria
Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt, Estonia
Finland, France
Georgia, Germany, Greece
Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy
Jamaica, Japan
Kazakhstan, Korea (South), Kyrgyzstan
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg
Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway
Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal
Romania, Russia (suspended)
Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland
Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan
Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan
Venezuela

Nine of these countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) are still covered by the original treaty with the former USSR rather than by individually negotiated agreements.¹

Treaties That Are Terminated, Suspended, or Partially Suspended

Being on the IRS roster does not always mean a treaty is fully operational. Three situations matter in 2026:

Hungary: The United States formally terminated the 1979 treaty in July 2022. It ceased to have effect for all taxes on January 1, 2024, and no replacement has been negotiated.²
Russia: The core operating provisions were suspended by mutual agreement effective August 16, 2024. The suspension covers business profits, dividends, interest, royalties, and most other income categories, so the 30% default withholding rate now applies to most U.S.-source payments going to Russian residents.³
Belarus: As of December 17, 2024, withholding agents may no longer accept treaty claims for reduced withholding on interest payments connected to trade financing made to Belarus residents. This partial suspension runs through at least December 31, 2026.⁴

Treaty status can shift with geopolitical events, and changes sometimes take effect mid-year. Check the current IRS treaty page before relying on a reduced rate for income tied to any of these three countries.

What an Income Tax Treaty Actually Does

Without a treaty, U.S.-source income paid to a foreign person faces a flat 30% withholding tax on items such as dividends, interest, royalties, and certain other payments.⁵ Treaties typically bring that rate down, sometimes to zero. The most common treaty rate for dividends is 15%, dropping as low as 5% for large corporate shareholders and set at 10% in a handful of treaties.

Treaties also allocate taxing rights between the two countries for specific income types. A French teacher working temporarily in the U.S. may end up paying tax on that teaching income only in France. A U.S. investor receiving dividends from a German company may face reduced German withholding rather than the full domestic rate. The point is to prevent the same dollar from being taxed twice while still ensuring it gets taxed somewhere.¹

One important caveat for U.S. citizens and green card holders: nearly every U.S. treaty contains a “saving clause” that preserves the U.S. right to tax its own citizens and residents as if the treaty didn’t exist. Limited exceptions exist for students, trainees, teachers, and researchers, and the treaties with China and the former USSR extend some of those exceptions even to green card holders.⁶

Countries With US Estate and Gift Tax Treaties

Estate and gift tax treaties address a different problem: whether assets are taxed at death, or on a large gift, by both countries. Only 12 countries have such agreements with the United States.

Estate and gift tax treaties: Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom
Estate tax treaties only: Canada, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland

Canada’s estate tax provisions are embedded in the U.S.-Canada income tax treaty rather than a standalone agreement.⁷ These treaties generally determine which country has primary taxing rights over specific categories of property, including real estate, business interests, and financial assets.

For the roughly 55 income tax treaty countries with no estate or gift tax treaty, the risk of double estate taxation is real. The U.S. allows a foreign tax credit and a unified credit for certain nonresidents, but the relief is less predictable without a treaty framework.

Countries With Social Security Totalization Agreements

Totalization agreements handle a third problem: workers and employers being asked to pay social security taxes to two countries on the same wages. They also let workers combine credits earned in both countries to meet minimum eligibility thresholds for retirement benefits.

The United States has totalization agreements with 30 countries:⁸

Americas: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay
Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
Northern Europe: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
Central and Eastern Europe: Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia
Asia-Pacific: Australia, Japan, South Korea

A common example: a U.S. company sends an employee to Germany for three years. Without the agreement, both governments would demand social security contributions on the same wages. The totalization agreement assigns taxing rights to one country, usually the home country for temporary assignments under five years.⁹

State Taxes Do Not Always Follow Federal Treaties

Federal tax treaties bind only the federal government. The IRS itself warns that “some states of the United States do not honor the provisions of tax treaties.”¹ You could successfully claim a federal treaty exemption and still owe full state income tax on the same amount.

There is no single federal list of which states ignore treaty provisions, so check directly with the tax authority in any state where you earn income. Residents of the seven states with no individual income tax and the two that don’t tax wages can generally skip this step.

How to Claim Treaty Benefits

Treaty benefits don’t apply automatically. You have to file the right form, and timing matters.

Reducing Withholding Before Payment

The cleanest approach is getting the reduced rate applied before you’re paid. Foreign individuals use Form W-8BEN to certify foreign status and claim a treaty-reduced withholding rate. The form asks for your taxpayer identification number (a U.S. SSN or ITIN, with limited exceptions for marketable securities), the treaty country, and the specific treaty article and rate you’re claiming.¹⁰ You give the completed form to the withholding agent (employer, bank, brokerage, or other payer) before payment.¹¹

A W-8BEN generally stays valid through the end of the third calendar year after you sign it. A form signed on March 15, 2026, expires December 31, 2029. If your circumstances change before then, such as a change in country of residence, the form becomes invalid immediately and you need to submit a new one.¹²

Nonresident aliens claiming a treaty exemption on compensation for personal services use Form 8233 instead. It covers both independent contractor income and, in some cases, wages from employment.¹³

Claiming a Refund After the Fact

If tax was already withheld at the full 30% rate, you can recover the difference by filing Form 1040-NR, the U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return. The refund equals the gap between the amount withheld and the lower treaty rate you were entitled to.¹⁴

Disclosing Treaty Positions on Form 8833

When you take a position that a treaty overrides a provision of the Internal Revenue Code, you generally have to attach Form 8833 to disclose it.¹⁵ This comes up often for dual-resident taxpayers using a treaty tie-breaker rule and for anyone claiming an exemption that conflicts with a domestic tax provision. Skipping the form carries a penalty of $1,000 per failure, or $10,000 for C corporations.¹⁶

1
Internal Revenue Service. United States Income Tax Treaties – A to Z
2
U.S. Department of the Treasury. United States’ Notification of Termination of 1979 Tax Convention With Hungary
3
U.S. Department of the Treasury. United States’ Notification of Suspension of the US-Russia Tax Convention
4
Internal Revenue Service. Belarus – Tax Treaty Documents
5
Internal Revenue Service. Fixed, Determinable, Annual, or Periodical (FDAP) Income
6
Internal Revenue Service. Examining Treaty Exemptions of Income – NRA Students, Trainees, Teachers and Researchers
7
Internal Revenue Service. Estate and Gift Tax Treaties (International)
8
Social Security Administration. Totalization Agreements
9
Social Security Administration. U.S. International Social Security Agreements
10
Internal Revenue Service. Claiming Tax Treaty Benefits
11
Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-8 BEN
12
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form W-8BEN
13
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8233
14
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040-NR (2025)
15
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8833
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6712 – Failure to Disclose Treaty-Based Return Positions