Thank you for calling, like I said, never lose sleep over FIRPTA matters again, we are here to help, glad we were able to give you an answer. 😊
Original Message:
Sent: 10-20-2023 14:11
From: Valorie Workman
Subject: FIRPTA - Fraud
Good Afternoon Mary,
I just wanted to thank you and Marc for helping me with the complicated FIRPTA Withholding issue we are having on one of our files.
I stayed awake all night thinking about this issue, then I remembered this morning about the posts I had read on the ALTA Forum in regards to FIRPTA and knew that I had someone I could contact for information. Which was very helpful, by the way.
I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Once again, thank you both!
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Valorie Workman
Vice President
Hazelwood Title & Escrow, Inc.
Chantilly VA
+1 (703) 263-1455
Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2023 12:49
From: Mary Enzi
Subject: FIRPTA - Fraud
Hi ALTA:
We had the opportunity to talk to many of you at the ALTA ONE conference just last week and realized how much fraud has affected the industry and all the hoops each one of you must go through in every transaction, having said that we came across a very unfortunate situation.
An escrow agent from a Title Company approached us with a fraud case in which they unfortunately closed and paid the "foreign seller", they asked us if we could help recovering the FIRPTA deposit, and we think we can, since we have been successful in this type of cases in the past, we have a very good chance of recovering the FIRPTA deposit money for the title company.
Just like TITLE is NOT in the business of TAX, we, tax people are not in the business of discover a fraudulent sellers, however, I firmly believe that an extra set requirements and set of eyes from the tax perspective can be really helpful in avoiding and maybe stop another unlucky situation like this one, scammers are getting more sophisticated every day, if we can help stopping the next attempt that would be just amazing! (Actually, we've already had 😊)
We advise that you be aware of any of these very particular situations;
- Ø The foreign seller has an expired passport.
- Ø They are not interested in recovering the FIRPTA withholding.
- Ø They do not have a tax ID and they claim they do not need one.
- Ø They refuse to have a video chat to confirm their identity (basically their face matches the picture in the passport and the signature is the same.
All these little things really make a difference and can prevent you from being the next victim, a diligent tax expert will pick up on this details since we, in the tax business come across similar situations, taxpayers being impersonated to claim massive refunds.
Give us a call if you have questions, we will be happy to talk to you and answer your FIRPTA or federal tax related questions.
Remember, we offer FREE FIRPTA classes for Escrow/Title Agents and Realtors, so schedule yours so you are prepared when you have a transaction involving a foreign seller.
Mary Enzi (Santiago), CAA
Office Manager
__________________________________
Houston, TX
281 578-1040 Office
832-201-9121 Fax
www.taxss.com [taxss.com]
What Is FIRPTA? https://youtu.be/yzX19A2XTIU [youtu.be]
Que es FIRPTA? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNcVjuJ2rSs [youtube.com]
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Mary Enzi CAA
Tax Solutions – FIRPTA Consulting
[email protected]
+1 (281) 578-1040
Barker TX
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