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I’m a Canadian, thinking about selling my NYC condo. I heard there’s some kind of hold-back tax on foreign sellers, what is it?

You’re thinking about FIRPTA, which is actually a federal regulation, not a city one.

Basically, the Foreign Investors Real Property Tax Act of 1980 is a way for the U.S. government to make sure that foreign sellers don’t take their money and run — it allows for withholding some of the proceeds of the sale into government hands until income taxes are filed.

The way it works is that your buyer is actually the agent of the withholding, which should be about 10% of proceeds.

Read more about it on the IRS Sheet Here