Your clients want US real estate.
Everything else is the problem.

When a foreign national sells a US property, the title company withholds a portion of the gross sale price at closing — not a portion of the profit, a portion of the entire sale. The rate depends on the transaction: 10% on properties between $300,000 and $1,000,000 sold as a personal residence, and 15% on anything above that or any investment property. On a $1,500,000 property, that's $225,000 held back — regardless of what the seller actually made.

Most investors don't know this going in. Some find out at the closing table. And almost none of them ever see that money again — not because they don't have a right to it, but because filing the FIRPTA recovery requires a US tax return, a US tax ID, and someone who knows what they're doing.

There's also a tool almost no one uses: Form 8288-B. Filed before closing, it allows the seller to request a reduced withholding amount based on actual expected tax liability. If the gain is small relative to the sale price, this can dramatically reduce what gets held back — before the wire goes out, not after.

I've done both. Proceeds and the full FIRPTA refund — back to the client. It's not complicated when you know the process. But you have to know the process before you close, not after.

When a foreign national owns US real estate in their own name, that property sits inside the US federal estate tax system in ways their home-country advisor probably doesn't know about. The exemption for non-resident aliens is $60,000. For US citizens in 2026 it's nearly $15 million. Everything above that threshold is subject to estate tax at rates up to 40%.

On a $400,000 property, the exposure is real. Most investors — and most of the financial advisors who serve them — have never done the math.

A Domestic Trust, set up by qualified Florida counsel before closing, addresses this. The trust holds title. The investor holds a beneficial interest — not the property directly. That distinction matters for estate and probate purposes. And unlike an LLC, a trust requires no State registration. There is no public record of who the beneficial owner is. The property is what a claimant can reach — nothing else.

I don't structure entities. That's counsel's job. What I do: I know this issue exists before we ever sit down, I flag it early, and I work with the attorneys who get it done correctly. By the time the wire arrives, the structure is already in place — not something heirs are scrambling to fix afterward.

For a foreign investor who owns US rental property, the ITIN is the entry point to everything. Without it, there is no tax return, no FIRPTA refund, no treaty election. The investment sits in limbo.

Getting an ITIN isn't hard. It requires Form W-7, certified identity documents, and an IRS Acceptance Agent or a Taxpayer Assistance Center visit. The process takes time. Start before the first closing, not after.

Most foreign investors have never heard of it until something goes wrong. A title company flags it. A withholding gets stuck. A return comes back rejected. I walk every client through this before the first closing. By the time the wire arrives, the ITIN is in place and the first year's tax return is already mapped out.

FinCEN is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Sounds alarming. It isn't — for legitimate investors. What it means in practice: there are federal disclosure requirements for certain real estate transactions and entity structures involving foreign nationals.

FinCEN's Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) — which require beneficial ownership disclosure on high-value all-cash purchases in specific markets including parts of South Florida — remain in effect. The broader beneficial ownership reporting landscape is in legal flux as of mid-2026, and the rules should be verified with qualified counsel at time of transaction.

For my clients, compliance is handled before they close. Whatever the current state of the rules, the structure is built correctly from the start. That protects the investment and keeps the client out of compliance problems — regardless of where the enforcement environment settles.

A French investor and a Brazilian investor buying identical properties in the same Florida neighborhood face very different US tax situations. France has both an income tax treaty and an estate tax treaty with the US. Brazil has neither. That difference affects how rental income is taxed, how much estate tax exposure the investor's heirs face, and how much planning is required to protect the investment.

The most favorable positions belong to investors from countries with both types of treaty — Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, and others. For clients from most of Latin America — Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile — there are no income or estate tax treaties with the US. That doesn't make the investment impossible. It means the structure has to work harder, and the planning has to be proactive.

One thing treaties generally do not do: reduce the FIRPTA withholding rate itself. The withholding is a prepayment mechanism, not a final tax. What treaty investors gain is a lower effective tax rate on the actual gain, which determines the size of the refund when they file.

"Where are you from" is one of the first questions I ask. The answer shapes everything that comes after.