Three decisions, taken in the right order, remove most of what German buyers later find expensive.
This page sets out the sequence. Each decision belongs with advisers in Germany and the United States together. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
The order matters. How the asset will be held affects how it can be financed, and both affect what has to be reported and where.
Buyers who take these in the wrong order end up either with a structure that a lender will not finance, or with financing arranged around a holding they should not have chosen.
Settle the structure before contract. Everything downstream is easier and nothing upstream can be redone cheaply.
The choice affects US estate tax exposure, US and German income tax treatment, privacy in public records, liability, and what happens on a future transfer within the family.
Germany and the United States have an estate and gift tax treaty, which improves the position relative to countries without one but does not remove the analysis. Direct personal ownership exposes a US situs asset to a regime with a very low non-resident exemption.
The structures used are well established, and the right one depends on the size of the asset relative to the rest of your estate, your German succession planning, and whether the property will be let. It is not a question with a default answer, and any adviser offering one without asking about the rest of your position is not doing the work.
A structure that works in the US and creates a problem in Germany is the classic failure. Insist that both sets of advisers speak to each other rather than working from summaries.
Foreign national lending in Florida is available and routine. Larger deposit than a domestic borrower, no US credit history required, pricing above domestic equivalents, terms varying by lender and moving with the environment.
The interaction with structure is the part that surprises people. Not every lender will lend to every holding structure, and terms can differ depending on whether the borrower is an individual or an entity. Choosing a structure without checking that it is financeable, when you intend to finance, creates work.
For preconstruction, the sequencing question dominates. Deposits are committed at contract and paid in instalments across construction, financing is arranged at closing, and most agreements carry no financing contingency. Speak to a lender before the deposit commitment, and know what you would do if financing were unavailable at completion.
Lenders also assess the building: the association budget, reserve position, insurance and ownership profile. A building can be difficult to finance for reasons that have nothing to do with the borrower, which is worth knowing at shortlist stage.
Florida imposes no state income tax. Federal tax applies regardless, and letting the property creates US federal reporting and filing obligations.
Germany taxes residents on worldwide income and has its own reporting requirements for foreign assets and structures. Where an entity is used, the German treatment of that entity is a question in its own right and is not always what the US treatment would suggest.
On disposal, the US withholding regime on dispositions by foreign persons applies at closing and is reconciled by later filing. It affects completion proceeds and should be planned rather than encountered.
None of this is difficult once it is on a calendar. All of it is expensive when it is not.
Advisers engaged on both sides before a building is chosen, with a view formed on the likely structure.
A lender conversation, if financing is intended, testing that the structure is financeable and establishing the deposit requirement.
Building selection, with the deposit schedule and association budget obtained in writing and read against the funding plan.
Contract reviewed by Florida counsel inside the rescission window, with the structure implemented before or at signing rather than afterwards.
Compliance calendar set at closing rather than at the first filing deadline.
That is the whole of it. It is not complicated, it is just ordered, and the order is the part that gets lost when a buyer falls for a residence before any of it has been considered.
The sequence above costs a few weeks at the start and saves considerably more later. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will make the introductions on the US side and get you the building documents you need to run the process properly.
None of this page is tax or legal advice in either jurisdiction. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.