Whenever you are about to receive an announced dividend payment, you should check what withholding taxes or other charges may apply for the company's foreign shareholders.
For example:
You are living outside Germany and you hold 1 share with Allianz (ALV) a day before the ex-dividend date. Allianz announces a dividend payment of 9.60 EUR for its shareholders. Knowing that Germany applies a withholding tax on dividends paid to investors of German securities at a current rate of 25% with an additional “solidarity surcharge” of 5.5% of the 25% withheld, we can calculate the full net amount of the received dividend.
25% of 9,60 = 2,40 ->
-> 5,5 % of 2,40 = 0,132
9,60 - 2,40 = 7,20 - 0,13 = 7,07 EUR
In this case for a full amount of 9,60 EUR dividend payment, after withholding tax and the solidarity surcharge, the dividend you will receive is 7,70 EUR.