Forms 8288, 8288-A, and 8288-B: FIRPTA Paperwork Step by Step

The Three FIRPTA Forms in Plain English

FIRPTA withholding, the rule that a buyer must hold back part of the price when a foreign person sells US real estate, runs on three forms with three different jobs, and half the confusion in this area comes from mixing them up.

• Form 8288 is the buyer’s withholding tax return. It reports the sale to the IRS and travels with the withheld money. Think of it as the envelope the payment rides in.
• Form 8288-A is the per-seller statement attached to Form 8288, one for each foreign seller, a little like a W-2 for the withholding. The IRS stamps one copy and mails it back to the seller, and that stamped copy is the seller’s proof, the ticket for claiming the money as a credit later.
• Form 8288-B is the odd one out, an application rather than a return. Filed with the IRS on or before the closing date, it asks the IRS to reduce the withholding to the seller’s actual expected tax, so the excess never leaves the closing table in the first place.

The default withholding is 15% of the gross sale price, with reduced tiers for certain buyer-residence sales at $300,000 and $1,000,000 price points. Those rates, the exemptions, and who counts as a foreign person are the territory of our FIRPTA withholding guide; everything below assumes withholding applies and walks through the paperwork that follows.

Who Files What, and When

The buyer is the withholding agent, so the buyer files. By the 20th day after the date of transfer, which for a normal deal means 20 days after closing, the buyer must send the IRS a completed Form 8288, the Forms 8288-A for each foreign seller, and the withheld tax itself. That deadline comes from the IRS’s instructions and it is short, far shorter than people expect, which is why the package should be prepared before closing rather than discovered after it.

In practice, nobody expects a homebuyer to draft federal withholding returns. The title company or closing agent prepares and submits the package as part of the closing, the way they handle the deed and the settlement statement. What does not move is the responsibility. If the forms go in late, or the withholding was never taken, the person the tax code points at is the buyer, a subject the buyer section below treats on its own. Sellers have a role here too, a small one with large consequences, making sure the 8288-A shows their correct address and taxpayer identification number, because the stamped copy the IRS mails back is going to that address and the credit hangs on that number.

The Seller’s Two Paths to the Money

Withholding runs on the gross price, not the profit, so the amount held back routinely dwarfs the actual tax, and sometimes there is no tax at all. The seller has two ways to close that gap, and the choice between them is really a choice about timing.

The after-closing path is a US tax return. The seller files for the year of the sale, Form 1040-NR for an individual or Form 1120-F for a foreign corporation, reports the true gain, attaches the stamped Form 8288-A as proof of the withholding, and receives the difference back as a refund. It works, and for sellers who learn about FIRPTA at the closing table it is the only path left. Its cost is the calendar. The return cannot be filed until the next filing season, processing takes months on top of that, and the money sits with the IRS the entire time, earning the seller nothing.

The before-closing path is the Form 8288-B withholding certificate, and when the numbers are meaningful it is usually worth the effort. Filed on or before the closing date, it shows the IRS the purchase price, the expected sale numbers, and the resulting tax, and asks that the withholding be capped at that figure. A seller whose true tax is $30,000 on a sale where the default withholding would be $135,000 keeps the $105,000 difference out of the refund pipeline entirely. The mechanics of what happens between filing and the IRS’s answer are their own subject, next.

The Escrow While Form 8288-B Is Pending

A pending application does not cancel the withholding. Under the IRS’s instructions, the buyer must still hold back the full amount at closing even though the 8288-B is in the system. What changes is the payment deadline. When the application was filed on or before the transfer date, the buyer’s obligation to file Form 8288 and send the money is deferred until the 20th day after the IRS mails its decision, the certificate or a denial, and the IRS generally acts within 90 days of receiving a complete application.

That deferral window is what closing agents build the escrow on. The withheld funds sit in the agent’s escrow account instead of going to the IRS, and the escrow instructions do the rest. If the certificate arrives approving a smaller amount, the agent sends the IRS that amount within the 20-day window and releases the balance to the seller. If the application is denied, the full withholding goes in. Two details keep the machine honest. The application has to be complete, including taxpayer identification numbers for the parties, or the 90-day clock never starts, and the seller must notify the buyer in writing on or before the closing date that the application was filed, which is what entitles the buyer to hold the money back from the IRS in the first place. A one-line letter satisfies it; skipping it creates a mess.

The ITIN Chicken and Egg

Every path above eventually asks for the seller’s US taxpayer identification number, and most foreign sellers have never had one. The 8288-B wants it, the 8288-A credit depends on it, and the refund return requires it. Meanwhile the standard route to an ITIN, the individual taxpayer identification number for people who cannot get a Social Security number, historically required a tax-filing reason to apply. A seller who needs the number in order to file, and a filing in order to get the number, is running in a circle.

The IRS built an exit from the circle. Form W-7, the ITIN application, includes an exception lane for FIRPTA real estate sales, so the seller can apply based on the sale itself. The W-7 can be submitted together with the Form 8288-B, or attached to the Form 8288 package, and the ITIN request is processed alongside the FIRPTA paperwork. If closing arrives and the number still does not exist, the deal does not stop. The buyer files Forms 8288 and 8288-A on time without it, the IRS holds the seller’s stamped copy, and it writes to the seller with instructions to obtain the ITIN, releasing the stamped copy once the number exists. The practical advice hiding in all of this is about the calendar. An ITIN takes roughly seven to eleven weeks, so the W-7 belongs in the first week after the contract is signed, alongside the 8288-B, not in the scramble before closing.

If the Buyer Skips the Withholding

The buyer who closes with a foreign seller and withholds nothing has not dodged a formality; the buyer has assumed the seller’s tax. The IRS can collect the amount that should have been withheld from the buyer personally, and penalties and interest ride on top. By that point the seller and the sale proceeds may be an ocean away, which is the exact scenario the withholding was designed to prevent, now running against the buyer instead of the Treasury.

The protection costs almost nothing at the table. From a US seller, collect a signed certification of non-foreign status, the standard affidavit stating under penalties of perjury that the seller is not a foreign person, and keep it with the closing file; it is what removes the buyer’s duty. From a foreign seller, confirm in writing that the correct amount is being withheld and that the closing agent is filing the 8288 package inside the 20 days. Buyers who ask those two questions before closing do not become FIRPTA cases. The buyers we meet afterward almost always assumed someone else was asking.

The Timeline From Contract to Refund

Laid end to end, a well-run FIRPTA sale reads like this.

• Contract signed. The seller’s side decides whether the numbers justify a Form 8288-B and starts the W-7 the same week if there is no ITIN. The buyer’s side confirms who counts as foreign and what the withholding rate will be.
• Weeks before closing. The 8288-B goes to the IRS, ideally 30 days or more ahead so the 90-day decision window overlaps the escrow period instead of extending it. The seller hands the buyer the one-line written notice that the application was filed.
• Closing day. The buyer withholds the full default amount. With no application pending, the closing agent prepares Forms 8288 and 8288-A for filing; with one pending, the funds move into escrow under instructions that track the certificate.
• Within 20 days of closing. If no application is pending, the 8288 package and the payment go to the IRS.
• Within about 90 days of the application. The certificate or denial arrives. The escrow pays the IRS the certified amount, or the full withholding on a denial, within 20 days of the IRS mailing its decision, and releases any balance to the seller.
• Weeks after the IRS receives the payment. The stamped Copy B of Form 8288-A goes out by mail to the seller. It gets filed somewhere safe, because the credit depends on it.
• Next filing season. The seller files Form 1040-NR or 1120-F with the stamped 8288-A attached, reporting the true gain and recovering whatever the withholding still exceeds the tax.

Every late FIRPTA problem we see is one of these steps done out of order, and almost every one traces back to the first line, a contract signed with nobody assigned to the sequence.

How We Work on FIRPTA Filings

Our role is the planning and the paper. We screen the transaction, decide with you whether a Form 8288-B is worth filing and get it filed on time, write the escrow and title-holding instructions the closing agent executes, shepherd the W-7, and paper the buyer-side protections, with fees for document work quoted up front. The tax computation inside the 8288-B and the eventual 1040-NR or 1120-F belong with your CPA or a cross-border return preparer, and we coordinate with them rather than duplicate them; for the larger foreign-ownership structures we co-counsel an international tax advisor, the same honest division described on our FIRPTA withholding page.

FIRPTA is also rarely the whole story for a foreign owner of Florida real estate. If the property sits in a foreign-owned single-member LLC, the sale is often the moment the IRS learns that years of required Form 5472 filings were never made, at $25,000 per missed year. Holding US property in your own name creates a US estate-tax exposure at death that starts after only $60,000 of value, covered in our guide to US estate tax for non-resident aliens, and investors who want US real estate returns without US-situs ownership sometimes restructure the position as a loan instead, the approach behind the portfolio interest exemption. The 30-minute consult sorts out which of these questions your deal actually raises.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The certificate that beat the refund line. An Israeli seller closes on a Hollywood condo for $700,000 with a modest gain. The default withholding would be $105,000 against a true tax near $20,000. The 8288-B goes in five weeks before closing with the W-7 riding along, the funds wait in the title company’s escrow, and the certificate arrives inside the 90 days. The escrow sends the IRS the certified amount and wires the seller the rest, months, possibly a year, ahead of what a refund return would have delivered.

The stamp that went to the wrong continent. A seller moves back to Europe after closing and never updates the address on the 8288-A. The stamped Copy B goes to the old Florida address and vanishes, and the refund return stalls without its proof of withholding. Reconstructing the credit with the IRS takes correspondence and patience measured in months. One line on one form, checked at closing, was the whole difference.

The buyer who asked in writing. A buyer under contract on a $900,000 house learns the seller lives abroad and emails the closing agent one question, who is handling the FIRPTA withholding and the 20-day filing. The answer comes back with the prepared 8288 package and the escrow instructions attached. Nothing dramatic happens, which is the point; the buyer’s file now proves the duty was met, and the closing proceeds like any other.

Sources of Law

• IRC §1445 (withholding of tax on dispositions of US real property interests; the transferee as withholding agent); IRC §897 (gain of a foreign person on US real property treated as effectively connected income). irs.gov FIRPTA withholding
• Instructions for Form 8288 (Form 8288 and the accompanying Forms 8288-A due by the 20th day after the date of transfer; the IRS stamps Copy B of Form 8288-A and forwards it to the foreign seller; where a withholding-certificate application is pending on the transfer date, filing and payment are deferred until the 20th day after the IRS mails the certificate or notice of denial). irs.gov/instructions/i8288
• IRS, Withholding certificates (Form 8288-B; the IRS generally acts within 90 days of a complete application including the TINs of the parties; the seller must notify the buyer in writing that a certificate has been applied for on or before the day of transfer). irs.gov withholding certificates
• IRS, ITIN guidance for foreign property buyers and sellers (Form W-7 under Exception 4 for FIRPTA dispositions; concurrent submission with Form 8288-B or the Form 8288 package; the buyer files Forms 8288 and 8288-A even without the seller’s TIN, with the stamped copy held until the ITIN issues). irs.gov ITIN guidance
• Seller recovery returns: Form 1040-NR (nonresident individual), Form 1120-F (foreign corporation). Rates and tiers (15% of the gross amount realized; the $300,000 and $1,000,000 buyer-residence tiers) as covered on our FIRPTA withholding page. (All IRS sources retrieved 2026-08-08.)

Updated on August 8, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. This article is general information about US federal tax procedure and Florida practice, not legal or tax advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Tax computations and return preparation belong with your CPA or cross-border preparer, and for larger foreign-ownership structures we co-counsel an international tax advisor. Your result depends on your specific facts. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.