What is the best way to sell a property in Costa Rica?

Getting taxed for International property ?

• My parents just sold a home in Costa Rica for 11 million Colones. I live in USA. This is $23,752.96. I'm splitting it amongst 4 brother, which makes it $5938.24 each. I need to know if I am going to get taxed for this. Do I have to report it? Also what is the best way to transfer the money from there to here, considering there are four of us recipients. Only two of us have bank accounts.

• Answer:

  Howdy mcgrofo-ga, A reminder of the: "Important Disclaimer: Answers and comments provided on Google Answers are general information, and are not intended to substitute for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal, investment, accounting, or other professional advice." This Internal Revenue Service (IRS) web page discusses gift tax questions. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=108139,00.html "Q: What is considered a gift? Any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money's worth) is not received in return. Q: What can be excluded from gifts? The general rule is that any gift is a taxable gift. However, there are many exceptions to this rule. Generally, the following gifts are not taxable gifts. 1. Gifts that are not more than the annual exclusion for the calendar year. ... Q: How many annual exclusions are available? The annual exclusion applies to gifts to each donee. In other words, if you give each of your children $11,000 in 2002, 2003 or 2004, the annual exclusion applies to each gift. Q: What if my spouse and I want to give away property that we own together? You are each entitled to the annual exclusion amount on the gift. Together, you can give $22,000 to each donee." This means that the gift from your parents you describe does not have to be reported and is excluded from taxes. Keep in mind that this does not address any possible tax liabilities that your parents might have from the sale of the house in Costa Rica, which is beyond the scope of your question. So, what your parents can do, if the two brothers that do not have checking accounts are amenable, is to gift $11,876.48 to each of the brothers that have checking accounts, and those brothers could in turn give $5,938.24 to the two other brothers in cash, or in the form of a cashier's check, etc. Probably the easiest way to transfer the funds is with a wire transfer. The eHow web site has "Clear Instructions on How To Do (just about) Everything," including this page titled "How to Conduct a Wire Transfer." http://www.ehow.com/how_2817_conduct-wire-transfer.html "A wire transfer is a transfer of money from one bank account to another. The actual transfer is done by the bank, and neither the sender nor the recipient of the money sees or touches the actual funds." The above page goes on in more detail on the process, so you might want to read the whole article. There are always money orders, both through a bank or Western Union, or you could use a Western Union money transfer, but they can be pricier than doing a wire transfer, etc. Here is their web page if you decide to go that route. You can locate Western Union offices worldwide there. http://www.westernunion.com/ "Let us help you online, by phone or at any of our 196,000+ Western Union Agent locations worldwide." If you need any clarification, feel free to ask. Search strategy: Utilized the IRS and Western Union web sites as noted above. Google search on: "wire transfer" FAQ ://www.google.com/search?q=%22wire+transfer%22+FAQ Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher