Open, straightforward, and better placed than some European neighbours on the question that carries the most weight.
This page describes what changes for an Italian resident. Your own position needs Italian and US advisers, and we make those introductions. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
There is no restriction on a foreign national owning residential property in the United States. No visa, no residency and no citizenship is required to buy, to own or to sell. Ownership and immigration are separate systems and buying property grants no right to live in the country.
What differs for an Italian buyer is what surrounds the purchase: holding structure, the interaction of two tax systems, financing terms, and currency.
Italy and the United States have an estate tax treaty. That distinguishes an Italian buyer from a Spanish or Monegasque one, and it shapes what your advisers will recommend. Confirm current treaty status with counsel rather than relying on a general statement.
United States real property is a US situs asset and can fall within the US estate tax net on the death of a non-resident owner. The non-resident exemption is dramatically lower than the one available to a US person, and direct personal ownership sits inside that regime.
The estate tax treaty between Italy and the United States provides a framework for how that exposure operates and how it coordinates with the Italian system. It is a real advantage over having no treaty at all.
The Italian side introduces its own consideration. Italian succession law contains forced heirship principles that reserve portions of an estate to certain family members, and how that interacts with a foreign held asset and any structure used to hold it is a question for Italian counsel. A US structure designed without regard to it can produce an outcome the family does not expect.
This is the specific reason we press Italian buyers harder than most on getting both sets of advisers in the same conversation. The failure mode here is not tax inefficiency. It is a succession outcome that does not match the intention.
Florida imposes no state income tax. Federal tax applies regardless of the state, and an Italian owner letting a Miami residence has US federal reporting and filing obligations on that income.
Italy taxes its residents on worldwide income, so the same income enters the Italian system, and there is an income tax treaty between the two countries governing relief.
Italy also has reporting obligations for assets held abroad and applies wealth style charges on foreign held property and financial assets. What applies to a Miami residence and to any structure holding it is a matter for current Italian advice.
On sale, the US withholding regime on dispositions of US real property by foreign persons applies at closing and is reconciled by later filing. It affects completion proceeds.
Foreign national lending is available to Italian buyers through Florida portfolio lenders. Larger deposit than a domestic borrower, no US credit history required, pricing above domestic equivalents, terms varying by lender.
Preconstruction sequencing is where the risk sits. Deposits are committed at contract and paid across construction, financing is arranged at closing, and most agreements carry no financing contingency. Know how you would complete without a mortgage before you commit.
A euro buyer acquiring a dollar asset across a staged schedule carries a currency position. Convert at each instalment, fix scheduled payments forward, or hold dollars already. We do not forecast currency.
The succession point above, first and early, because it is the one with consequences that cannot be corrected later.
And the running cost picture, which tends to be underestimated. Coastal Florida association budgets are large and volatile, driven mainly by property insurance, and special assessments are a normal feature of the market. Read the estimated budget and the reserve position from documents rather than taking a figure verbally.
On the building itself, Italian buyers tend to ask good questions about finish quality and materials and fewer about the association and the documents. Both matter, and the second is the one that determines what ownership actually costs year to year.
The succession interaction is the reason, and it is not something that can be tidied up afterwards. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will introduce you to US counsel who are used to working alongside Italian advisers.
Nothing here is legal or tax advice in either country. 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.