FIRPTA law, which stands for the Foreign Investment Real Property Tax Act, recently changed last year, increasing the withholding from 10% to 15%.  Many foreign sellers who enter into Residential real estate contracts, are not aware of this FIRPTA withholding requirement.  Foreign sellers believe that because they don’t pay federal income taxes in the United States, then they are immune from declaring any profits on real estate sales transactions or filing tax returns. This is false.

Any seller of real estate is required to disclose the sale to the Internal Revenue Service and if a foreigner, then 15% of the gross sales price will be withheld at the time of closing and remitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

Additional forms are then required to be filled out and sent to the IRS and eventually a tax return which if the amount of tax on the sale is less, the FIRPTA withholding difference is then refunded.

There are numerous exemptions to FIRPTA withholding requirements, for example if the sales prices is less then $300,000.00, if the buyer is going to live in the property, and countless others.

However many title companies and even attorneys are not familiar with exemptions and retain the funds regardless.

At the Law Jacqueline A. Salcines, PA., we have over 17 years experience assisting buyers of real estate and sellers, with their real estate needs.  Attorney Jacqueline Salcines is not only a real estate attorney but also an accountant and able to provide advice regarding FIRPTA and other tax issues. Practice Areas

• Real Estate Closings
• Title Insurance
• Contract Law
• Real Estate Litigation
• FIRPTA considerations
• Short Sales
• Debt Settlements
• Negotiations

When you have legal concerns related to  FIRPTA issues  the Law Offices of Jacqueline A. Salcines is here to help. Our real estate attorney has been serving the community for 17 years. We work hard to ensure personalized legal representation by carefully attending to each individual matter.