Buying from an international seller?


I never had to provide any part of ssn. My only action was to forward the correspondence from IRS to my escrow/title company. It was Marcelo at Mason. He took care of everything else. All he had to do was verify the money was sent and accepted by the IRS.

He mentioned that the notices were due to poor internal process at IRS. There is/was a backlog of processing the withholding. The length of the processing delay triggered notices to be sent to the buyers. There was nothing to do except to wait for the IRS to process the payment.

It might be scary, but it is normal. Nothing to worry about or avoid so long as you have a competent escrow/title company.



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Lots of fear mongering in this thread

Your opinion. Everyone has their own risk tolerance. Its important that someone knows all the possiblites and they can make their own decision weather or not they want to buy from an international seller. But saying international transactions are just the same as buying from a US seller is completely false.
 
I never had to provide any part of ssn. My only action was to forward the correspondence from IRS to my escrow/title company. It was Marcelo at Mason. He took care of everything else. All he had to do was verify the money was sent and accepted by the IRS.

He mentioned that the notices were due to poor internal process at IRS. There is/was a backlog of processing the withholding. The length of the processing delay triggered notices to be sent to the buyers. There was nothing to do except to wait for the IRS to process the payment.

It might be scary, but it is normal. Nothing to worry about or avoid so long as you have a competent escrow/title company.



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This is good to hear. We have been in contact with the title company and they have been VERY informative and responsive. Also seems to be the best from what I’ve read, which makes sense from my experience.
 
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@Girlstar30 @VGCgroupie is the SSN for the withholding certificate needed to close? Or can the closing take place and SSN be provided later?
They just asked me for it before closing and I just figured it was necessary and since it was probably the most widely used dvc title company, I didnt think anything of it and thought my sensitive information would be protected. I would ask them this and express some of your discomfort, you can use my situation as an example if you want I dont mind 🤣
 
I've spoken about our experience on other threads. Our CCV contract was from an international seller (UK) in 2020/2021 and I wouldn't do it again. At the time, I thought it was great since I had already lost contracts to ROFR.

About 6-9 mo after we closed we began getting letters from the IRS. We used Mason title (Marcelo) and he filed the paperwork, did the necessary withholding, and sent the check, but the IRS claimed they never received it. Mason then sent additional paperwork to the IRS with the fedex tracking information -- did not satisfy the IRS. At about a year and half, when we received another letter from the IRS that now had additional fines due to unpaid taxes, I spent hours on the phone with multiple IRS agents and finally ended up with an agent in international affairs/accounts. Agent was mystified why I was having to deal with this (his account reviews were typically for multi-million dollar assessments and sales) and was able to clear up our account (with a 30 day review).

It was basically explained to me that since the buyer is a US citizen, the IRS has the power to levy fines and collect taxes, thus it is falls on us to make sure that withholding is paid. The IRS can't (or the process is much more difficult) do so with an international party (the seller).
 
I've spoken about our experience on other threads. Our CCV contract was from an international seller (UK) in 2020/2021 and I wouldn't do it again. At the time, I thought it was great since I had already lost contracts to ROFR.

About 6-9 mo after we closed we began getting letters from the IRS. We used Mason title (Marcelo) and he filed the paperwork, did the necessary withholding, and sent the check, but the IRS claimed they never received it. Mason then sent additional paperwork to the IRS with the fedex tracking information -- did not satisfy the IRS. At about a year and half, when we received another letter from the IRS that now had additional fines due to unpaid taxes, I spent hours on the phone with multiple IRS agents and finally ended up with an agent in international affairs/accounts. Agent was mystified why I was having to deal with this (his account reviews were typically for multi-million dollar assessments and sales) and was able to clear up our account (with a 30 day review).

It was basically explained to me that since the buyer is a US citizen, the IRS has the power to levy fines and collect taxes, thus it is falls on us to make sure that withholding is paid. The IRS can't (or the process is much more difficult) do so with an international party (the seller).

Thanks for sharing what happened to you. Weather or not people think it wont happen doesnt mean that it cant. And the risk is not always worth it for every person.
 





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