Land Sale and taxes?

IF i own a piece of land in a country in europe and i live in the united states and i decide to sell the land to somone living in america am i required to file some sort of tax papers or can i just go ahead and deposit the money into my bank account? The land sale is worth about 30K american dollars.

US citizens and US residents are requried to report worldwide income on their tax returns, so you need to report the sale.

If you put the money in a non-US bank account and then transfer it to the US, you must also file a form TD F 90-22.1 to document the account.

Just like most states here want their cut if you have a capital gain for property in their state, each country in europe likely does the same for property in their country. That depends how much more the property is worth when you sell it than when you bought it (factoring in any allowable expenses). Recording the deed would alert them to the transfer.

The good news is we have tax treaties with many countries, so tax paid to the foreign country would be deducted as foreign tax credit from any US capital gains tax you would otherwise owe.

Note that you may need to file something with both that other country and the US if it is a wash or a loss to account for cost basis, or it may look to somebody like 100% profit.