Avoiding FIRPTA with 1031

[Hiroe H.]

Hi! I am trying to do 1031 exchange.  The house which we're trying to sell has 2 owners, a foreigner and an US citizen.

1) Does FIRPTA 15% withholding apply to us? or it's not required since the US citizen can file taxes?

2) If FIRPTA applies to us, I'd want to avoid the FIRPTA with a 1031 exchange. One way I read online which is confusing to me is buying a property for our personal residence with the sales price not exceeding $300,000. This sounds like a conflicting fact to me since 1031 rule says that both houses need to be for investment purpose. How can this be?

3) Another option we can do is to do a QuitClaim deed to remove the foreigner. Would we be still qualified for 1031 exchange after QuitClaim deed?

I'd appreciate if someone could answer to even one of the above questions.

Thanks in advance!

[Dave Foster]

@Hiroe H., FIRPTA can be avoided if the buyer of your old property signs an afadavit that they will occupy it as a primary residence.  And the sales price is less than $300K.

The only other way to avoid FIRPTA is with a 1031 exchange.  But to do so it will need to be a simultaneous exchange where your sale and your purchase are both lined up and closing within a day or two of each other.