topic Foreign Real Estate Taxes in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Foreign Real Estate Taxes

Panthermonium — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 12:38:40 GMT

My wife is a Spanish Citizen but resident alien in the US. She owns an apartment in Spain and pays real estate taxes each year. In addition to the regular real estate taxes, non-residents of Spain also are hit with a 24% tax on rental income if they are not living in Spain while renting out the apartment. Can that additional real estate tax levied upon the apartment also be entered as real estate tax in Turbo Tax? If so, just add it to the foreign property real estate tax box?

Re: Foreign Real Estate Taxes

DC-taxpayer — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 21:56:30 GMT

I am sorry to say that as of 2018, you no longer can deduct foreign real estate taxes. This was part of the tax bill passed by Congress. See this link for more information:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p530

Re: Foreign Real Estate Taxes

Panthermonium — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 01:11:58 GMT

Thanks for the response. I agree, that link appears to state the foreign real estate taxes are no longer deductible, but that begs the question as to why Turbo Tax still inquires about real estate property taxes paid on a foreign rental property. I'm assuming Turbo Tax has incorporated said new tax rules into the program.

Re: Foreign Real Estate Taxes

pk — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 03:14:27 GMT

@Panthermonium the answer is wrong. The TCJA limits property tax deduction for "home / second home" owned abroad. For rental property abroad this rule does NOT apply. You report all expenses including taxes , mortgage interest, etc. etc. on schedule-E just as if the property was situated on US soil. The only difference is that the depreciation is over 39.5 years ( like commercial property on US soil ) in lieu of 27.5 yrs.