Buyers from low tax jurisdictions frequently arrive assuming Miami works like home. In the ways that cost money, it does not.
This page addresses assumptions rather than a single country. Your own position needs local and US advisers, and we make the US introduction. 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.
Switzerland has an estate tax treaty with the United States. Monaco and Luxembourg do not. That is the first thing to establish, because it changes how much weight the holding structure has to carry. Confirm current treaty status with counsel rather than on the strength of this page.
Beyond that, buyers from all three share a set of assumptions about how ownership works, and those assumptions are where the surprises come from.
It does not follow. United States real property is taxed by reference to where it sits, not where you live. Your domestic tax position has no bearing on the US treatment of a Miami residence.
Florida imposes no state income tax, which is the fact most often quoted. Federal tax applies regardless of the state, and letting the property creates US federal reporting and filing obligations. The two are frequently presented together in a way that overstates the position.
Florida property tax is separate, annual, substantial, and unaffected by any of the above. For a buyer accustomed to a jurisdiction where the annual cost of holding a residence is modest, this is the line that surprises.
And US estate exposure applies to the asset regardless of how benign the domestic estate regime is. A Monegasque resident with no inheritance tax at home still holds a US situs asset inside the US estate tax net.
Florida property ownership is a matter of public record. Deeds, transfers and the parties to them are searchable by anyone, and they are searched routinely by press, by data aggregators and by anyone with an interest.
Buyers from jurisdictions with greater transactional discretion are frequently unprepared for this. It is not a defect in the system; it is the system.
Structures can affect what appears and how readily it connects to a name, and that is a legitimate and lawful planning consideration alongside the tax and succession ones. It is also a reason to settle the structure before contract, because the first recorded document is the one that is permanent.
We would note that any structure adopted for privacy must still satisfy the reporting and beneficial ownership requirements that apply in both systems. Privacy in public records and opacity to authorities are different things, and only the first is available.
It is not, and this is the most consistent misjudgement we see from this group.
A coastal Florida condominium association budget is large and volatile, and the dominant line is property insurance, which moves with the insurance market rather than with anything the building controls. Florida’s tightened structural inspection and reserve requirements have raised funding obligations in many buildings.
Special assessments are a normal feature of the market rather than an aberration, and they can be substantial. A building with an extensive amenity programme and a small number of residences carries that programme on fewer shoulders.
None of this is a reason not to buy. It is a reason to read the estimated operating budget and the reserve schedule as part of choosing the building, rather than treating them as paperwork that arrives afterwards.
Rental restrictions live in the condominium documents and vary considerably between buildings. Minimum lease term, frequency, association approval of tenants, and whether short term letting is permitted at all.
A buyer intending to let for short periods when absent, which is a common intention in this group, needs a building that permits it. Many do not, and several of the most desirable do not.
This is discoverable before contract, it is answered in a specific section of the documents, and it is the mismatch we see most often between what a buyer planned and what the building allows.
It has its own note. Read it before choosing, not after.
Every point above is answerable from documents that exist before you commit, and none of them are raised by a sales gallery with no reason to raise them. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will get you those documents and introduce you to US counsel.
Nothing here is legal or tax advice in any 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.