Reporting Costa Rica Real Estate to the IRS | Expat CPA Shares Tips

Welcome to our Friday Costa Rica real estate broadcast! Alex McGowin is an expat tax expert - he's a U.S. CPA with more than a decade of experience handling tax returns and other questions for those who want to move abroad.
(Sorry to my non-U.S. audience; today we're focused on keeping the Internal Revenue Service happy!)
Today, we cover the following questions:
1) What are the basic IRS reporting requirements for someone who has just bought a Costa Rica property?
2) What are the basic IRS reporting requirements for someone who has just opened a Costa Rica bank account?
3) Does it make sense for U.S. buyers to put a Costa Rica property in the name of their U.S. LLC? Or their trust? Are there any benefits?
4) How do you report income from a Costa Rica rental property on your U.S. taxes?
5) How does the IRS treat taxpayers who live in properties held by their own Costa Rica corporation?
You can visit Alex's website at www.mcgowintax.com
You can see our other video here: • Avoiding US Tax Penalt...
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[@Corey.xrp589]

Thanks for info matt

[@CostaRicaMatt]

You are very welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@kimmoore7897]

Thanks for this info. I'm still curious to know if it's a requirement of the IRS to report the income from a sale of a property IF the property is owned by an American citizen (for properties registered in a person's name and not held in a corporation). Thank you.

[@CostaRicaMatt]

Generally speaking - yes! Though you should contact Alex (or your preferred CPA) to find out exactly what you should do.

[@kensteffes6712]

Hello Matt and thank for your podcast. I wanted to know how an American who owns property in cost rica can pay for monthly utilities and yearly taxes if that are not living in CR full time. Can auto pay be set up on a credit card for monthly utilities? I would also like to know about purchasing homeowners insurance. Thank you, Ken

[@CostaRicaMatt]

Good morning Ken, I believe I've discussed this a bit in different videos on utilities. Once you have online banking with a CR bank account you can pay your bills, including most taxes. Most of the public utilities don't have a public portal where you can pay using a credit card.

[@kensteffes6712]

Ok, so can I do auto debit directly from a CR bank account for monthly utilities? Is it possible to set up a CR bank account from the states?

[@LiborTinka]

Why not keep other tax bureaus of other countries happy, too? You should pay taxes from your property also to Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Panaman, Brazilian etc. etc. governments. You pay too little, you are not a good slave. Sorry but ownership has a specific meaning in justice and when you pay taxes off something else it will be taken from your then you don't truly own it. Instead, you are owned by the IRS so enjoy being someone else's property.

[@CostaRicaMatt]

I absolutely agree that you should also keep local tax authorities happy, 100%. One has to choose a topic to focus on in each video and I have covered Costa Rica taxes in others. The subject of this video was simply the US.

[@LiborTinka]

@@CostaRicaMatt I see. As much as I loved Costa Rica esp. after my solo trip there, just the fact they've recently introduced VAT and that the living costs may skyrocket just like in every "developed" country, me and my GF are going to choose a poorer but more free country (we are too much freedom loving and not interested in paying protection money to the mob).

[@CostaRicaMatt]

Frankly I hadn't fully understood your comments the first time I responded and now I'm intrigued. You're looking for a poorer country without property taxes? I'm afraid you'll find that the only places on Earth without property taxes are the absolute richest countries. And what did you love about Costa Rica? I'm willing to bet that some of the things you love are made possible by taxes. (Personally, I dislike going to countries where there's garbage everywhere, where it's not safe enough to go to the beach by yourself, or where you can't drink the water...)