Since January 1, 1985, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax (FIRPTA) has required home buyers to withhold 10 percent of the gross sales price of the property and send it to the Internal Revenue Service if the seller is a foreign person. A buyer is exempt from this withholding requirement if the seller provides to the buyer a non-foreign affidavit stating under penalty of perjury the seller’s U.S. taxpayer identification number and that the seller is not a foreign person.

Understandably, and particularly in light of recent privacy issues and concerns about identity theft, sellers often are reluctant to release their Social Security numbers to buyers. The IRS Code does not require the seller to give the buyer his or her Social Security number in order to sell the property, only to exempt the buyer from withholding. If the seller does not comply, the buyer is obligated to withhold 10 percent of the purchase price.