Best Structure for Canadian Investors in US Real Estate

[Gary Lamb]

Hello gurus of BiggerPockets,

My wife and I are Canadian and about to start investing in real estate in the US. We might invest in any state but we will start out in Florida. I think we will end up buying a mixture of single family and multi family properties.

Like most people, we want to protect our assets and optimize the tax structure - with perhaps some anonymity thrown in.

If we were in the US then we would just set up an LLC for each property. We might hold the title in a Trust and have the LLC as the beneficiary. As Canadians, however, this would result in double taxation.

Canadians can set up an LP or an LLLP and have an LLC as the General Partner. I have a few questions about this;

1) We don't want all the assets in one bucket. Would we have to set up a partnership for each one? Or is there a way to have one partnership and many LLCs in it, each one with one asset and each one protected from suits on the others?

2) What exactly would the difference be, practically, from having an LP and having an LLLP. I think that the limited partners have the same protection. What is the value in the extra protection for the GP? This may be important because Canada does not officially recognise LLLPs as pass through for tax purposes. It has never been tested.

3) If we want to add in some anonymity then who would be the beneficiary of the Trust? The LLC or the partnership?

Thanks gurus!

Gary