Condominiums at the Time Warner Center were found to have a number of hidden owners over a decade who had been the subjects of government investigations. Credit Edward Caruso for The New York Times
New York Times: U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate
Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties.
The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers’ identities.
It is the first time the federal government has required real estate companies to disclose names behind cash transactions, and it is likely to send shudders through the real estate industry, which has benefited enormously in recent years from a building boom increasingly dependent on wealthy, secretive buyers.
Read more ....
Update: Luxury-Home Market Seen Threatened by Scrutiny in NYC, Miami (Bloomberg)
WNU Editor: So even some of the "top 1 percent" are now going to be tracked .... especially their money. But will this have an impact? My cousin's daughter works as a real-estate agent in Miami, and her clients are primarily from Eastern Europe. After reading this New York Times article, I asked her on how would this impact her business. Her response ... her clients do not care. They are not American citizens, they are not involved in politics (both in eastern Europe and in the U.S.), and they pay their taxes .... but "over-there". Most of her clients also pay "cash" .... wire transfers from European banks to her sellers in Miami. But while she is not worried, I personally think that she should be concerned .... the US Treasury Department is making it very clear that they want to know where (and how) you got your money, and I will not be surprised if the primary target will be foreigners who enjoy their tax shelters and shell companies.
4 comments:
"I personally think that she should be concerned" she and other had better be concerned.
I thought they were already doing this. Given the global nature of threats faced by the United States and the hundreds of billions the US is losing in tax revenue, it would seem experiential common sense the Untied States government would be trying to track this and would have been for some time. They are just now getting around to this? Are they really that stupid to have been just now getting around to this? The answer to both questions is probably a resounding "yes."
Also, with the nature of these transactions I would have thought that foreign governments would want information on these people as well especially the foreign buyers to ensure the proper amount of tax is being paid to those respective authorities as well. As such, I would have expected the foreign governments to place enormous pressure on the US Treasury Department to implement this type of program years ago.
As such, I'm surprised its taken this long for them to get around to this. As an American, we've come to expect stupid from our government. I do not expect stupid from foreign governments. I'd have expected foreign governments to send experts to the US to explain to US officials how to set up such a monitoring system, set the system up, and train US officials on this long, long ago or face severe reprisals from these governments against us. Perhaps this type of monitoring is already been in place and has been for quite some time but reasons known only fully to them the Treasury Department is choosing to release this to the public at this time.
If I'm in the top 1% financially in the US, I'm expecting to be monitored by a large, obtrusive, and very hostile microscope by the government and the news media. I'm not sure how this works in other countries. Given the potential for tax revenues, I'm shocked it has taken the governments of the world this long to implement such a system. I'm inclined to believe the monitoring has been in place for quite some time and someone just now decided to make the obvious public for some reason.
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I’ll certainly comeback. תמא 38 רעננה
You’ve got some interesting points in this article. I would have never considered any of these if I didn’t come across this. Thanks!. HOA Services
Post a Comment