If I own US real estate directly and die, does FIRPTA become an estate-tax problem too?

FIRPTA and the nonresident estate tax are separate regimes. FIRPTA is an income-tax withholding mechanism that bites when you sell a US real property interest during life. The estate tax is a transfer tax imposed at death on the US-situated portion of a nonresident non-citizen's estate. One is triggered by a sale, the other by death — but a single asset, US real estate held directly, can put you in the path of both.

Under the situs rules, real estate physically located in the United States is US-situs property, and stock of a corporation organized under US law is US-situs no matter where the certificates sit. The Form 706-NA instructions require an executor to file when the value of the decedent's US-situated assets (with certain adjustments) exceeds $60,000, and the unified credit available is generally only $13,000 unless a treaty gives more. So a nonresident who owns US real estate directly — including through a disregarded LLC, which is ignored for this purpose — can face real estate-tax exposure on death, not just FIRPTA on a lifetime sale.

This is usually where planning matters most. Holding US real estate directly can trigger FIRPTA on sale and 706-NA exposure at death. Domestic-corporation stock that is a USRPI can do the same double duty. By contrast, stock of a foreign corporation is generally neither a USRPI nor US-situs, although the foreign corporation itself still faces US rules if it sells the underlying real estate — so a blocker shifts, rather than erases, the exposure. The estate-tax mechanics, the $60,000 filing threshold, situs, and treaty relief are detailed in /guides/form-706na-estate-tax-nra; treaty, expatriation, and blocker analysis should be run separately when the numbers are material.