Closing Time!

[#1Disfann]

Just curoius, what FIRPTA changes are coming?

Starting on September 30th the IRS will require all FIRPTA payments to be made electronically. No more paper checks and from what I have been reading there isn't really a plan in place to handle this. It states that payments must be made by the buyer and that the buyer must create an EFTPS account with the IRS to do this. One article says the title company nor a realtor will be able to do this anymore. Another says it takes 10-15 days to set up an EFTPS account and since FIRPTA must be paid in 20 days that creates a fairly tight window if someone gets held up. On another sites forum, where most members are actual title company employees, they very validly pointed out that they, as well as the seller, aren't going to just hand over that money to the buyer and hope that the buyer sends it in. Its just a bit of a can of worms. I did just get an email from my closer that says they have now been informed on how they are going to handle these changes and didn't mention that it would change the pertinent verbiage of my purchase agreement which states that the title company will handle all of that. Sounds like a mess that I hope gets all the kinks ironed out soon.

 

[LavaMama]

Yikes, this sounds like a nightmare. Our first purchase was from an international seller last year and it went smoothly. This would definitely give me pause.