Nonresident Tax Planning for US Real Estate and Other Investments

Nonresident tax planning for international cross-border investments is a multi-dimensional process involving coordinating US income tax law (as well as state income tax provisions) with the tax law of the investor’s home country (and possibly that of third countries where holding companies or trusts may be located). It often also involves planning for the application of an income tax treaty between the United States and the investor’s home country (or such third country holding company or trust jurisdictions) to improve the tax result experienced by the nonresident cross-border investor. For individual investors, we also integrate US estate tax planning considerations into the cross-border tax planning process along with international estate planning, to make sure the investment structure is consistent with the nonresident investor’s home country estate plan (see our page entitled “US Estate Tax, Gift Tax and Other Transfer Tax Planning”).

For international cross-border investments in US real estate, we incorporate Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (“FIRPTA”) withholding tax avoidance considerations and structuring to reduce US taxes on rental income and other cross-border cash flows into the analysis, to avoid or reduce the possibility of international double taxation.

We also have years of experience assisting our nonresident cross-border investment clients with US entity-selection and organization, structuring financing for the US investments (including advising concerning an optimum mix of debt and equity for a US holding or operating company) and drafting purchase and lease agreements, intercompany and third-party agreements to make the structure operational. We also have experience explaining joint venture considerations for investments involving multiple parties, incorporating immigration considerations into the analysis if the investment is associated with the issuance of a US investment or work visa and advising on California probate avoidance considerations when the owners include one or more individuals.

In addition to planning for cross-border investments in U.S. real estate, the scope of our planning experience extends to planning for all other categories of investment in US assets (see, for example, our page entitled “Nonresident Tax Planning for Cross-Border Business Operations”).

We also have significant experience guiding nonresident-owned US entities (as well as our US citizen or resident clients) to structure “outbound” cross-border investments from the US entity into Canada and Mexico, as well as other countries worldwide (see Mr. Lance’s biography on our “About Us” page for examples of our decades of worldwide experience in such cases).

As the foregoing makes clear, an experienced international cross-border tax attorney can be a valuable team member to guide or assist you with international cross-border investments into the United States. At Lance Cross-Border, we have decades of experience assisting our clients with such cross-border investments. We invite you to browse through the information on our website and our blog. In it, you will find answers to some of the questions that you may have concerning international cross-border tax problems or issues. We also welcome any inquiries that you may have concerning your specific tax situation. Feel free to call us at (760) 578-5093, contact us via email at Brent@LanceCrossborder.com or by using our online contact form. We will respond to all relevant inquiries quickly, without any obligation.