FIRPTA for Miami Foreign Buyers & Sellers

Why buyers should care at purchase

Two different buyer situations get mixed together. Separate them before you read anything else.

You are buying from a foreign seller. The seller's status can affect closing logistics. Title and escrow often need extra documentation, and the file may include a withholding-and-reporting process. You should expect that conversation during contract and closing, including if you are a domestic buyer. You should not expect your agent to tell you the tax result. The closing team and the seller's tax advisor handle the tax side of that file.

You are buying as a foreign person. The purchase itself is allowed without U.S. citizenship or a visa. The purchase does not grant a visa, residency, or any immigration benefit. What you should plan at purchase is the eventual exit. How you take title, whether that is your personal name or another structure, is a decision for your attorney and your CPA. Rangely will not choose an entity for you, and she will not tell you that a structure removes FIRPTA.

The Colombia hub already uses this posture: name the topic, refuse a rate, and hand the tax question to counsel. The foreign buyers hub holds the other country guides. The foreign buyers guide is the longer article. If a sentence there states a figure, use this page for the qualitative version and confirm the facts with your advisor. The buyer's guide covers the purchase sequence. It is not a tax memo.

Form 8288, as awareness only

Form 8288 is the IRS form family often associated with FIRPTA remittance and reporting themes at a real estate closing. People hear the number at the title table and assume they should download a form and complete it themselves. Do not use this page that way.

Who prepares a form, who signs it, and where it goes are questions for the title company and your tax advisor. Your closing team and tax advisor handle the paperwork for your facts. Rangely does not prepare, sign, or file IRS forms, and this page does not walk through the lines. Awareness is the point of naming Form 8288. Filing instructions are not.

Related country and foreign-buyer paths

Country context lives on the foreign buyers hub. Colombia's nested page, buy from Colombia, is the counsel-safe model for a later sale. The foreign buyers guide is the English support article. Use this page when the question is the exit, or a closing where the seller is a foreign person.

Argentina's nested page, buy from Argentina, is live. The older Argentina guide remains as optional support. It is educational, not tax counsel. Other countries still use the flat guides on the hub until a nested page replaces them.

Domestic buyers purchasing from a foreign seller can stay here for the closing orientation, then use the buyer's guide for the rest of the purchase. Sellers use the seller's guide for the listing sequence, without copying rate language out of it.