# Be-10



## 167juliar (Feb 23, 2015)

Anybody know anything about the BE-10 form due on June 30? 
I have found conflicting info
Some say it must be filed if you have foreign rental property (even meager) and you are a US person. 
Have read elsewhere that it is only for US residents. 
confused


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

You've raised an "interesting" issue, one that I hadn't been aware of until now. So I hit the books, as it were.

OK, here are the official instructions -- and they require a fair bit of parsing, unfortunately. _Fortunately_, after having done some of that parsing (perhaps too quickly), it appears that most (even the vast majority) of overseas Americans who own foreign rental real estate are not required to file any of the BE-10 form variants. The primary reason is presented in Section III A as I see it. I'll quote the relevant bit I spotted in that section:



BE-10 Instructions said:


> The following characteristics would indicate that an operation or activity is probably not a foreign affiliate: [....] 2. it conducts business abroad only for the U.S. person’s account, not for its own account, [....]


And there, it would appear, the instructions have just described the vast majority of overseas Americans who own foreign rental real estate. Yes, they are U.S. persons, but the "foreign affiliate" (their rental property) is very unlikely, in most cases, to be separable from the U.S. person in this part of clarifying what is and is not a "foreign affiliate."

Consequently I think the bloggers (mostly attorneys) are overreacting from what I can tell, and the U.S. government -- the Bureau of Economic Analysis within the Department of Commerce -- has not cast as wide a net as some have speculated. In my view it's a wild exaggeration to say that an American with a rental apartment in Mexico and $5000 in rental income is subject to BE-10D reporting. (It'd have to be BE-10D if anything because the D variant is for sub-$25 million cases.) It's hard to imagine that sort of scenario would fit within the definition of "foreign affiliate" in those instructions.

That said, let's just stipulate there's a distinct "elephant (giraffe?) in a china shop" flavor to what BEA has decided to do here. I'm sympathetic to the fact that government agencies (in the U.S. and elsewhere) need quality survey data in order to make better informed decisions and to help set better policies -- and that'd be a good thing, having governments make smarter, more informed decisions -- but this is just plainly the wrong way to try to accomplish that goal.


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## 167juliar (Feb 23, 2015)

Thanks. IRS speak is not easy to understand and it does seem like there is just one thing after another falling on expat heads in terms of filing obligations. Thanks for the info


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Credit (or blame) where due: BE-10(x) has nothing whatsoever to do with the IRS or U.S. Treasury Department. It's a completely separate agency/bureau.


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## HillbillyCanuck (Apr 9, 2012)

167juliar said:


> Anybody know anything about the BE-10 form due on June 30?
> I have found conflicting info
> Some say it must be filed if you have foreign rental property (even meager) and you are a US person.
> Have read elsewhere that it is only for US residents.
> confused


Tax lawyer Phil Hodgen has a post on BE-10. You can find it at [Friday Edition] Form BE-10 in the land of the free.


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Hodgen missed a few things. One thing he missed: BE-10(x) is every half decade.


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## mrIgor (Jun 27, 2015)

167juliar said:


> Anybody know anything about the BE-10 form due on June 30?
> I have found conflicting info
> Some say it must be filed if you have foreign rental property (even meager) and you are a US person.
> Have read elsewhere that it is only for US residents.
> confused


Hi, hope you are doing well.
Have you try to check uscis.gov out?


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