Selling a Property in United States being a nonresident.

If you are a non-resident of United States and you don’t pay taxes on regular basis, IRS collects this taxes when you sell your property. So under Foreign Investment Tax Act, as a foreign seller you will have to pay withholding taxes which is from 15% of the purchase price. For example if you sell a property for 500,000 title company will withhold 15% of the purchase price which is $75,00. This is a substantial amount of money that you will not receive at the closing, because this money will be send to IRS.

But it is not your actual taxes that you owe. This is why they call it withholding taxes, IRS will hold this money until they calculate the amount of taxes that you owe. There is going to be a difference in between the money that were taken from your sale and the taxes that you owe. And you will receive this money back when you will file for tax returns.

Foreign owners of Real Estate in Florida need to know:

As of July 1st SB264 requires foreign individuals who own real estate in Florida to either sell it or register the property, depending on the date of the ownership.

The law singles out 7 following countries: China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Foreign individuals who are associated with these countries.

Foreign individuals associated with one of the 7 countries on the list, if they acquired real estate in Florida after July 1st 2023, the new law requires them to sell the property within 3 years.

If a foreign individual owned Real Estate in Florida before July 1st 2023, they can keep the property and need to register it with the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) if it is Real Estate or with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) if it is an agricultural land.

They will need to do so before December 31 2023. After the deadline the State may put $1,000 fine a day, place and lean and take possession of the property.

Foreign individuals associated with Republic of China, if they owned real estate in Florida before July 1st  2023 they can also keep the property, need to register it with department of Economic Development but cannot not purchase or inherit additional property.

The law is very broad, there are some exceptions, I advise you to consult a lawyer and work with professional realtor to help you stay within the law.