Contract sold….now for the FIRPTA issue..

flowrida

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
We sold our contract recently and proceeds received no problem. Our issue is that we’ve been told that to claim the tax back, we need to get our passports “certified by the US Embassy or Consulate“, not just notarised by a notary. I’ve tried finding out who to contact, I’ve rung the Embassy but couldn’t speak to a human!

We have been using a Firpta agent in the US but really is not proving any help!

Is there anyone who can advise please?
 
You may want to post this question in the DVC Purchasing or DVC Miscellaneous thread since there are so many international resale owners that post there. I hope you get the answer to your question soon.
 
I think that you make contact with your local Notary and seek his help

I think that you sign the papers , in front of the notary who should

send those papers off to to The U.K. Department of Foreign Affaries ,

They then return the papers , with their stamp ,to your solicitor.

He / you send the complete papers off to the IRS
 
Sounds very complicated. I am sure someone actually posted the passport to the agent in the USA once, seem to remember a post a while ago, not something you really want to do though
 


We sold our contract recently and proceeds received no problem. Our issue is that we’ve been told that to claim the tax back, we need to get our passports “certified by the US Embassy or Consulate“, not just notarised by a notary. I’ve tried finding out who to contact, I’ve rung the Embassy but couldn’t speak to a human!

We have been using a Firpta agent in the US but really is not proving any help!

Is there anyone who can advise please?
Hi. Did you ever get an answer to your question ? We are in the process of selling and had all the initial documents notarised My understanding from the FIRPTA docs we just received is that we only need to return the forms signed. It reads to me that it's U. S. citizens who needed the passports notarized. Am I wrong?

Thank you
Lynda
 
Hi,

From what I have been told, for the documents to be notarized you need to take them to the US embassy, or use one of their approved notaries that are listed on their website. You can make an appointment online.
 
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Hi. Did you ever get an answer to your question ? We are in the process of selling and had all the initial documents notarised My understanding from the FIRPTA docs we just received is that we only need to return the forms signed. It reads to me that it's U. S. citizens who needed the passports notarized. Am I wrong?

Thank you
Lynda
I sold a small point contract in May. I used the standard FIRPTA 15% as cheaper than using a specialist but got a letter from IRS in July saying they couldn’t mail a copy of form 8288-A as I didn’t have a US Tax Identification number.
I’ve sent a tax registration form off to IRS with identification to get the tax number but not heard back yet. I then need to send the FIRPTA team my TIN to finalise this sale.

However, if you are filing a tax return (not using 15% FIRPTA deduction) with the new TIN request you need to get documents signed officially which is probably what the original poster is referring to.

All of this is additional to the notary requirements
 


I would be grateful if you keep us updated on progress on doing this process yourself without a firpta specialist. I recently just bought a new contract and am selling one of my older contracts just now and will be using a firpta agent to do the work this time. I plan on selling another one next year so would be interested to how difficult it was reclaiming the firpta tax yourself so I can save myself the Firpta agent fee next time.
I sold a small point contract in May. I used the standard FIRPTA 15% as cheaper than using a specialist but got a letter from IRS in July saying they couldn’t mail a copy of form 8288-A as I didn’t have a US Tax Identification number.
I’ve sent a tax registration form off to IRS with identification to get the tax number but not heard back yet. I then need to send the FIRPTA team my TIN to finalise this sale.

However, if you are filing a tax return (not using 15% FIRPTA deduction) with the new TIN request you need to get documents signed officially which is probably what the original poster is referring to.

All of this is additional to the notary
 
I used the timeshare store and they have used Mason Title for our sale. Honestly if I'd known how much it was going to cost me to sell I wouldn't have bothered. We actually have 2 direct contracts and 3 resale. I had intended selling 4 of the contracts to buy more Boardwalk points so that all our contracts were the same resort. Our sale for SSR was $10500 but after paying the agency fees, the notarisation fees (more expensive here in Scotland I believe) and the fees for the agent doing our FIRPTA we will be lucky to receive $6000. We still have to have our passports certified and notarised which our lawyer cannot do apparently , we cannot get an appt with the US embassy in the next 3 months and I have no idea what the cost for this will be I have taken our other 3 contracts off the resale market and will manage with what we have. I am a very disgruntled seller.
 
I used the timeshare store and they have used Mason Title for our sale. Honestly if I'd known how much it was going to cost me to sell I wouldn't have bothered. We actually have 2 direct contracts and 3 resale. I had intended selling 4 of the contracts to buy more Boardwalk points so that all our contracts were the same resort. Our sale for SSR was $10500 but after paying the agency fees, the notarisation fees (more expensive here in Scotland I believe) and the fees for the agent doing our FIRPTA we will be lucky to receive $6000. We still have to have our passports certified and notarised which our lawyer cannot do apparently , we cannot get an appt with the US embassy in the next 3 months and I have no idea what the cost for this will be I have taken our other 3 contracts off the resale market and will manage with what we have. I am a very disgruntled seller.
I have just managed to get an appointment at the embassy in Edinburgh for end of August the other day but see that there is no appointments left. I have x2 appointments and am going to cancel one so keep an eye out as it might come available again. From what I have read to get your passports certified it’s $50 per passport.
 
I have just managed to get an appointment at the embassy in Edinburgh for end of August the other day but see that there is no appointments left. I have x2 appointments and am going to cancel one so keep an eye out as it might come available again. From what I have read to get your passports certified it’s $50 per passport.
Thank you. Do you know when you are going to cancel ?
 
Will be mon/tues just waiting on them confirming that they will deal with all the certifications at one appointment for me and my wife .
I hope they do. We have 4 on our contract. Husband me and 2 daughters so we all have to go with our passports and 1 daughter lives near London so have to get a different appt for her Its just a nightmare I feel 🙃
 
We have sold 3 contracts and never went through the US embassy, we just used a local solicitors here in Birmingham who carried out notarization.
 
We have sold 3 contracts and never went through the US embassy, we just used a local solicitors here in Birmingham who carried out notarization.
We enquired about this and were advised the cost was £850 plus VAT. Add that to the US charge of $600 and its not worth the bother of claiming Firpta back:confused::confused3
 
We have sold 3 contracts and never went through the US embassy, we just used a local solicitors here in Birmingham who carried out notarization.
We did this approach with a contract sale and will be doing the same with a second contract sale. FIRPTA will equate to £000s retained by IRS for us and I’m told by our FIRPTA specialist in the US that the IRS are on a 10months backlog at the minute, so we’ve been owed a few thousand pounds for a year now.
 

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