How to recover witholding made due to no w-8ben form?

Question

I forgot to submit a W-8 form to my brokerage company. When I made a trade, the IRS witheld 28% of the entire proceeds (not just the gain!). My brokerage company (E-trade) says they cant do anything. My question is how do I retreive the witholdings?

I have been filing the full 1040 form for years. Will that have a provision to get this refunded? Will IRS send me some form (like banks send 1099s) as a 'receipt' of the witholding that I can attach to my tax return?

Answer 1

You'll probably have to file a Form 1040-NR return next year to get that back.