My situation is as follows - I am a Canadian citizen married to an American Citizen. We both reside permanently in Canada and I do not have a Green Card nor do I anticipate getting one.
Our plan is to purchase a vacation rental property in the US and rent it out most of the year with the exception of 2-4 weeks where we use it ourselves.
My question is as follows:
- should the vacation property be jointly owned (for estate planning purposes etc.) or should it be in just my wife's (US Citizen) name?
The reason we have this dilemna is because I know that as a Canadian I am not permitted to do any of my own reno's, maintenance nor can I accept rent cheques from individuals renting the property (i.e. plan is to rent it out on vrbo.com) but my wife can.
Could we get away joint ownership so long as I'm not seen carrying in a new sink, laying tile, cutting the grass, etc. (finally an excuse to not do projects around the house :-)) or having rental cheques made payable to me personally?
Financing would be in the form of a HELOC from our jointly owned home in Canada (bearing in mind that I don't want to run into a gift tax situation down the road either).
I've searched high and low on the internet but as of yet have been unable to find anyone else in my particular situation. If anyone can shed some light on the above situation I'd be extremely grateful.
Thank you.
Can. & US Citizen Purchasing US Vacation Rental Property
Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA