Selling a Massachusetts House When You Live Abroad: FIRPTA and Massachusetts Withholding

Selling a Massachusetts house from overseas is mostly the same sale as any other, with two differences that affect how much money arrives and when. If you are a foreign person for US tax purposes, federal law requires your buyer to withhold part of the price and send it to the IRS under FIRPTA. If you are not a Massachusetts resident and the price is $1 million or more, Massachusetts has, since November 1, 2025, required its own withholding.

Neither withholding is the tax itself. Both are prepayments against what you will owe on your returns, and both can sometimes be reduced in advance. Planning for them, months before closing rather than days, is what keeps a sale from leaving a large share of the proceeds in a government account while you wait for a refund.

Who FIRPTA applies to, and who it does not

FIRPTA applies when the seller is a foreign person: broadly, a nonresident alien individual, or a foreign corporation, partnership, trust or estate.

It does not apply to:

US citizens, wherever they live.
Green card holders and others who are US residents for tax purposes.

So a US citizen who has moved to London is not subject to FIRPTA at all, while a Canadian who has never lived here and owns a Somerville condominium is. Massachusetts withholding, below, can still apply to the US citizen abroad.

How much the buyer must withhold

The buyer is the withholding agent, and in practice the closing attorney handles it. The IRS rules as of 2026:

The general rate is 15% of the amount realised, usually the gross price, not the gain.
If the buyer is an individual who will live in the house, the rate falls: nothing withheld on a price of $300,000 or less, and 10% on a price above $300,000 up to $1,000,000.
Above $1,000,000, 15% applies whatever the buyer intends.

The buyer is liable for the tax if they fail to withhold, so buyers and their attorneys insist on it. The amount is sent to the IRS with Forms 8288 and 8288-A within twenty days of closing.

On an illustrative $900,000 sale to an investor, $135,000 is withheld. If the seller's actual gain is $150,000, the tax due is a fraction of that. The rest comes back, eventually, when the seller files a US return.

Reducing the withholding to the tax actually owed

A foreign seller can apply to the IRS for a withholding certificate, on Form 8288-B, asking that the withholding be reduced to the expected tax. Applying before or at closing means the buyer holds the withheld amount in escrow until the IRS responds rather than sending it all immediately.

You will need a US taxpayer identification number, an ITIN if you do not have a Social Security number, and the IRS takes time to respond. Apply early. After the sale, the seller files a federal nonresident return, Form 1040-NR, which reports the gain and reconciles the withholding. Buying a home when you are new to the United States covers getting an ITIN.

Massachusetts' own withholding, since November 2025

Under 830 CMR 62B.2.4, for closings on or after November 1, 2025:

It applies when the gross price is $1,000,000 or more and the seller is not a Massachusetts resident.
The amount is generally 4% of the seller's share of the gross price, or an alternative amount based on the estimated gain if the seller elects it and can document the figures.
Every seller completes a Transferor's Certification at or before closing, and the closing agent files a Massachusetts return for every sale at that price, even where nothing is withheld.
Exemptions include the sale of a principal residence that qualifies for the federal home-sale exclusion, and a seller who has been a Massachusetts resident since January 1 of the year of sale and will remain one.

The withholding is credited against the seller's Massachusetts tax on the gain, settled on a Massachusetts nonresident return.

US citizens abroad and other non-residents

A US citizen living overseas is outside FIRPTA but files a US return in the ordinary way, and may still be able to use the primary-residence exclusion if they owned and lived in the house for two of the five years before the sale. A sale within three years of moving away usually keeps it within reach. At $1 million or more, Massachusetts' withholding applies unless the principal-residence exemption does. And the country you live in may tax the gain too, with treaty and credit questions that belong with a tax adviser in both countries.

If you are deciding whether to sell at all, keeping the house and renting it covers what changes when you become a landlord from a distance, including what it does to that exclusion.

Closing from another country

You do not need to fly in. The options:

A power of attorney, signed in advance, letting someone in Massachusetts, often the attorney or a family member, sign for you. It is recorded at the Registry of Deeds with the deed. Get the form from your closing attorney; a generic one may not be accepted.
Remote online notarization, which Massachusetts made permanent from 2024 and which can be used by a signer outside the state, including abroad, subject to the systems the attorney uses.
A US embassy or consulate, which can notarise documents, by appointment.

Plan for the money as well. Large international wires take time and attract bank questions, and confirming wiring instructions by phone matters even more from abroad; see wire fraud at closing. A house left empty while you sell from overseas needs the precautions in selling an empty house in winter.

The timeline that works

1.Months before listing: a US tax adviser, an ITIN if needed, and a Massachusetts attorney.
2.At listing: confirm how you will sign, and prepare the power of attorney if you are using one.
3.On accepting an offer: decide on a withholding certificate application and the Massachusetts election.
4.After closing: file the federal and Massachusetts nonresident returns to settle the tax.

What a seller walks away with covers the rest of the net sheet, and the closing process covers the steps.

General information as of 2026, not tax or legal advice. FIRPTA and Massachusetts withholding rules, rates and exemptions change; the IRS, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and your own advisers govern.