In order to be able to participate in tax lien auctions, the participating person must be a so-called US person, i.e. be a US citizen or green card holder, or have their unrestricted tax residence in the USA through another visa.
Alternatively, a US tax resident company, such as a US corporation, may invest in US tax liens.
The latter is the most common way for foreigners (non-US persons) to participate in tax lien auctions by establishing such a corporation for their investments and making their investments through them.
Another possibility is to participate in investment pools, which then invest in the desired liens via a joint corporation.
While a separate corporation ensures complete autonomy for investments, the administration costs for such a corporation lower the expected return or only make an investment profitable from a higher minimum amount. As a participant in an investment pool, you can already invest in tax liens with smaller amounts, but depending on the design of the pool, you may be restricted in which states and in which types of property you can invest, and the pool is not really suitable for later investing in a very individual property hope in the auction. Participation in the pool requires less in-depth specialist knowledge, since good pool management can warn you about potential bad investments such as junk properties or “bad neighborhoods”.
We offer both support in founding a US corporation for tax lien investments and regularly our own investment pools in tax liens attractive states.