Samsung Electronics Dividend 2026: Q3 Payout, Dates and Foreign Investor Tax

What is the Samsung Electronics dividend in 2026, and when is it paid?

Samsung Electronics paid KRW 372 per share for Q1 and KRW 374 for Q2, then declared KRW 4,601 for Q3, payable around November 27, 2026. Common and preferred shares get the same amount, and the Q3 total is roughly KRW 30 trillion.

That Q3 number is the headline. It is about twelve times a normal quarter this year, and it is why questions about the payout schedule suddenly spiked. The short answer for anyone shopping the stock this week: the record date was September 30, so shares bought now are not eligible for this payout. If you already held at the September 30 record date, expect cash on or near November 27, minus Korean withholding tax.

This guide is written for investors outside Korea, with a US lens: a US-resident holder buying through a US or international broker. Everything here is as of November 6, 2026. Where a figure comes from news coverage rather than a filing I could open myself, I say so. For the official versions, use Samsung Electronics investor relations and Korea’s DART electronic disclosure system. I did not have access to those pages from my research environment, so treat my dates as “reported,” not “verified.”

What are the 2026 quarterly dividend dates and amounts?

Samsung pays quarterly, with record dates at quarter-end. Here is what is reported, and how firm each line is.

Quarter	Per share (common and preferred)	Record date	Payment	How firm
Q1	KRW 372	March 31	Late May (May 29 reported)	Record date from the company’s IR notice; payment date reported only
Q2	KRW 374 (about KRW 2.46 trillion total)	June 30	Late August (Aug 28 reported)	Amount reported July 30; payment date from secondary sources
Q3	KRW 4,601 (about KRW 30 trillion total)	September 30	November 27	Announced October 29, 2026; consistent across multiple outlets
Q4	Not set	Year-end	Spring 2027 expected	Amount and timing not confirmed

Only the Q3 row is solid enough that I would plan around it. For Q1 and Q2 you already know what landed in your account, and your broker’s statement beats any blog.

The reported dividend yield for Q3 was 1.7 percent on common shares and 2.2 percent on preferred, calculated on the prior week’s average price. Preferred shares trade at a discount to common, so the same cash payout yields more on them. If you want the structural differences between the two share classes, see our Samsung preferred stock dividend guide.

Why did the Q3 payout jump so sharply?

Because 2026 is the last year of a three-year shareholder return program, and the company started releasing the remaining pool. Under the 2024 to 2026 policy, Samsung committed to return half of its free cash flow over the period, with a regular dividend of roughly KRW 9.8 trillion a year.

Coverage of the August 2026 board decision put this year’s total shareholder return at around KRW 90 to 110 trillion. The Q3 dividend is part of that. After counting what has already been paid or committed, about KRW 35 trillion, the company said KRW 55 to 75 trillion remains, to be delivered through more cash dividends and a substantial share buyback and cancellation. Reports also tied the payout to a very large third-quarter operating profit. I am relaying those numbers from press coverage; the filings are where to check them.

My read: do not treat KRW 4,601 as the new run rate. Management itself said the final split of the remaining pool will be decided at a board meeting in late January 2027, and no policy for 2027 onward has been announced. A one-time-looking spike is a poor basis for an annualized yield. Anyone who takes the 1.7 percent quarterly figure and multiplies by four is building a spreadsheet around a number the company never promised.

How do record dates and ex-dividend dates work for Korean shares?

You need to be in the shareholder register on the record date. Korean stocks settle in two business days, so you must buy two business days before the record date, and the ex-dividend date is the business day before the record date.

Take Q3. The record date was Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The last day to buy and still receive the dividend was Monday, September 28, and the ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 29. Buy on the 29th and you get the shares but not the payout.

A wrinkle for foreign investors: Korea’s market hours fall in the middle of the night in the US, and some brokers need an extra day to process orders in Korean won. Do not cut it close if you are buying from abroad. If your broker settles slower than the local market, the effective deadline moves earlier. For the practicalities of opening access to Korean shares from the US, our guide on how foreigners can buy Korean stocks from abroad covers account types and trading hours.

Year-end is the messy one. December 31 is a market holiday in Korea, which changes the buying deadline from the usual two-day math. Some blogs name December 29 as a key date, but I could not confirm that from a primary source. In December, check the company’s IR notice for the record date and ask your broker for the exact last purchase day.

One more thing worth knowing: in recent quarters the amount has been set after the record date, so a headline like “Samsung to pay KRW 4,601” often arrives when the record date has already passed. News about a dividend is a report of a decision, not an invitation to buy for that payout.

How much withholding tax do foreign investors pay on Samsung dividends?

The commonly cited statutory rate for a non-resident is 22 percent, made up of 20 percent national income tax and a 2 percent local surtax. A tax treaty can lower it. For US residents, the US-Korea treaty rate on dividends is reported as 15 percent.

The catch is paperwork. Treaty rates are generally not applied by default. Since 2023, Korea has expected the investor to substantiate beneficial ownership, usually with a certificate of residency and a reduced-rate application submitted to the withholding agent before the payment date. If that is not on file, the agent withholds 22 percent. Some sources also say the filing responsibilities of the withholding agent tightened from 2026. These points come from tax-advisory write-ups, not from the statute, so confirm with your broker and with the Korean National Tax Service.

Here is how the Q3 payout of KRW 4,601 per share looks under each rate. Figures are rounded and in Korean won; I deliberately skip a US dollar conversion because the exchange rate moves, and I am not going to invent one.

Shares held	Gross dividend	After 22% withholding	After 15% treaty rate
10	KRW 46,010	about KRW 35,888	about KRW 39,109
100	KRW 460,100	about KRW 358,878	about KRW 391,085
1,000	KRW 4,601,000	about KRW 3,588,780	about KRW 3,910,850

The gap between the two columns is the money at stake in the paperwork: about KRW 32,000 on 100 shares, or roughly KRW 320,000 on 1,000. That is large enough to bother with for a sizable position and probably not worth a long phone call for a handful of shares.

What should US holders know about OTC shares and depositary receipts?

How you hold Samsung changes how the dividend reaches you. A direct Korean-won position through a broker with Korean market access is one path. Many US investors instead hold an over-the-counter line such as SSNLF, or global depositary receipts traded in London.

For unsponsored OTC lines, one guide I came across warned that treaty-rate handling may not be automatic because there is no sponsoring depositary bank doing the paperwork. I have not verified that for any specific broker. For depositary receipts, the depositary typically collects the dividend, deducts Korean tax and local fees, and passes the remainder through; the rate applied depends on the depositary’s own arrangements.

The practical move is a simple question to your broker’s support team: “What Korean withholding rate is applied to Samsung dividends in my account, and what documents do I need to file for the treaty rate?” Write down the answer. Brokers differ, and the answer on one platform does not transfer to another.

Can I recover Korean tax through the US foreign tax credit?

Often yes, up to a limit. Korean income tax withheld on dividends is generally the kind of foreign tax that US residents can claim as a credit against US tax, using IRS Form 1116 or, in simple cases, a direct credit on Form 1040. The usual caveat applies: withholding above the treaty rate may not be creditable, because the treaty limits what the US treats as properly paid.

That makes the treaty paperwork do double duty. Getting the 15 percent rate applied at source avoids both the cash drag and the argument over creditability. If 22 percent was withheld, a refund claim for the excess can sometimes be filed with the Korean tax authorities, but the deadlines, forms and the role of your broker vary, and I would not assume it is quick.

For the US mechanics, see our foreign tax credit guide, and for the general idea of recovering over-withheld foreign tax, how to get withheld tax refunded. Neither is Korea-specific, so treat them as background, not instructions for this dividend. A US tax professional should confirm your own numbers.

What mistake do new Samsung dividend buyers make?

They buy after the announcement. The case below is a composite built from common misunderstandings, not a real person’s story.

Imagine an investor who sees a headline on October 29 about the KRW 4,601 payout, buys 200 shares that afternoon, and expects roughly KRW 920,000 gross on November 27. Nothing arrives. The record date had been September 30, a month earlier. Meanwhile a second investor who had bought 100 shares back in the summer receives KRW 460,100 before tax. Same headline, opposite outcomes.

The second mistake is subtler. The first investor, still excited, might multiply the quarterly yield by four and decide the stock “yields about 7 percent.” That figure includes a payout twelve times the earlier quarters of the same year. Before you buy for income, ask what Samsung can repeat.

A short checklist before you buy any Korean stock for its dividend:

1. Find the next record date in the company’s IR notices, not in a news summary.
2. Count two business days back from it for the last purchase day, then add a safety day if you trade from abroad.
3. Ask your broker what withholding rate applies and what treaty documents are needed.
4. Separate confirmed payouts from guesses; Q4 is a guess today.
5. Remember the payout is taxed twice in a sense: Korean withholding first, then possibly US tax with a credit for the Korean part.

Is the Samsung dividend a reason to buy the stock?

I would not make it the only reason. The Q3 payout tells you the company is generating a very large amount of cash and is willing to hand a chunk of it back. It does not tell you the same size will arrive next quarter, and Samsung’s earnings depend on a memory and device cycle that can reverse. Cash dividends are a board decision, and boards can cut them.

What I would watch instead: the late January 2027 board decision on how the remaining KRW 55 to 75 trillion is divided between dividends and cancellations, whether a new multi-year policy replaces the 2024 to 2026 one, and whether the regular dividend of roughly KRW 9.8 trillion a year holds if the cycle turns. Those three items matter more than the one-off headline.

If dividend income is the goal and you want to compare against other income sources, the Korean bank stocks covered in our Korean bank dividend guide pay differently and carry different risks, and our piece on tax-efficient dividend investing explains how account placement changes what you keep. I am not recommending any security, and none of this is a price view.

How can I avoid missing the next payout?

Set two reminders and one habit.

• Calendar the end of each quarter, two weeks ahead, with the note “check Samsung record date.”
• Follow Samsung’s investor relations notices page, and if your broker offers corporate-action alerts, turn them on.
• After every payment, compare the deposit with your expected gross and the withholding rate. If it is lower than expected, ask your broker why, and ask early, while deadlines for corrections are still open.

The dollar amounts this season are large and the rules are the same as ever. Be on the register by the record date, know your withholding rate before the cash arrives, and treat Q4 as unknown until the company says otherwise.

This article is general information, not investment, tax or legal advice, and it contains no price targets. Figures and dates are as of November 6, 2026 and rely partly on press reports I could not match to a primary filing. Confirm payouts, record dates and withholding treatment with Samsung Electronics investor relations, Korea’s DART system, the National Tax Service and your broker, and consult a qualified tax professional for your situation.