understanding form 8288 when buying from a foreign entity

[Mike Stone]

We just bought a US condo from a canadian person. (we are a multi member LLC). I believe we were told during closing that we would not have to worry about withholding taxes on his behalf.

now im getting an IRS request to complete 8288. is this just a routine procedure where I just complete it with '0'?

when reading the irs instructions. it seems to request us to complete 8288-A also . Is this form asking for information about the foreign sellers?

[Ashish Acharya]

Looks like you received the Withholding certificate issued by the IRS. IRS issues a  withholding certificate to reduce or eliminate withholding on dispositions of U.S. real property interests by foreign persons. Either a transferee or transferor may apply for the certificate. I think the Seller CPA might have done that. Glad it worked. And yeah, IRS makes things very complicated.