A sale abroad produces a buyer who wants clean title, a tax authority who may want a return, and a bank who will ask why a large sum has appeared. You can make each of those easier by collecting the purchase file, the improvement invoices and a view on tax before you sign a sale contract with a deadline.
Tax on the way out
The country of the property often taxes a gain by a non-resident. Your country of residence may tax it too, with a credit or an exemption that has to be claimed properly. What counts as your cost — the price, the purchase taxes, improvements you can evidence — is a local computation. This article will not estimate it. An adviser with the contracts can. A treaty article on gains, if one applies, is part of that conversation, not a substitute for it.
What the buyer will ask
Debts, community arrears, planning, and who must sign. If a co-owner, a company or an estate is involved, the authority to sell needs to be obvious. If you inherited the property, the local process that put it into your name needs to be finished. Discovering that at the buyer’s lawyer’s office is how deals slip.
Where the money goes
Net proceeds arrive in a currency and into an account. If you need them in another currency, price the conversion on the amount received. Tell the receiving bank before the money lands, with the sale contract as the source. A joint sale into a sole account, or a company sale into a personal one, will be questioned. Match the names.
A sale abroad is a tax event and a banking event
Before you accept an offer, ask what taxes or costs a seller in your position may face in the country of the property, and whether the country where you live will also want to know about the gain. The answers depend on how long you owned it, how you owned it, where you are resident, and the costs you can document. This guide states no rate and no exemption. An adviser who can see the purchase file can narrow it. If the purchase file is missing, reconstructing cost is the first job, not the marketing.
Plan the proceeds. The buyer’s bank, your bank and any intermediary may ask where the money is going and why. A sale is a familiar source of funds, and it is still a source of funds. Ask for the completion statement to be in a form you can show a bank later. Decide which account will receive the money, in which currency, and whether that account will still be open if you have moved.
Clear the practical claims on the property before you promise a date
Ask what must be paid or cancelled so a buyer can take clean title: a mortgage, community charges, a tenant who has not left, a local certificate someone mentions. The list is local. Your notary or lawyer should own that list. Do not assume a buyer’s enthusiasm removes it.
Tell the insurer and the utility providers when the sale completes, and tell any tax authority you have been advised to notify. Keep the sale contract and the proof of tax paid with the original purchase documents. If you owned through a company, ask whether the company should be closed, kept, or sold, and ask before the money has already been paid out to you as if the company were a pocket. That choice is advice, not a bank transfer.
A practical checklist
- Purchase file and improvement invoices found.
- Tax questions asked in both countries.
- Authority to sell confirmed.
- Community and local taxes up to date.
- Receiving account warned, with matching names.
- FX route priced if you must convert.
Questions to ask
- Is the gain taxable here, and where I live?
- What evidence of cost will be accepted?
- Who has to sign the sale?
- Are there arrears or charges on the title?
- Which taxes are withheld on completion?
- Will my bank accept the proceeds with this paperwork?
Common mistakes
- Throwing away the purchase file years ago.
- Assuming the country you live in will ignore a foreign gain.
- A sale contract deadline before the tax answer.
- Proceeds sent to an account in the wrong name.
- Forgetting a co-owner who is abroad and slow to sign.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Always consider obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
