Form 5472: Filing Guide for Foreign-Owned US LLCs (2026)

Form 5472 is the information return a foreign-owned single-member US LLC must file every year to report money and other transactions between the LLC and its foreign owner or other related parties. Because the LLC is a disregarded entity, it attaches the 5472 to a mostly blank "pro forma" Form 1120 and faxes or mails the package to a special IRS unit. There is usually no tax due, but the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000, which makes it the most important deadline for non-resident LLC owners.

This guide is for freelancers, agencies and online sellers outside the US who formed a Delaware, Wyoming or other state LLC to invoice US clients or use US payment platforms. It explains who files, what counts as a reportable transaction, how to fill in the form, a worked example with numbers, and the mistakes that cause penalty notices. It is general information, not tax or legal advice; a US tax professional who works with foreign owners can confirm how the rules apply to you.

Who must file Form 5472?

Form 5472 has two groups of filers:

• US corporations that are 25% foreign-owned. A foreign person owning at least 25% of the voting power or value, directly or through attribution rules, makes the company a "reporting corporation".
• Foreign-owned US disregarded entities. A domestic LLC with a single owner who is a foreign person, which the IRS treats as a corporation for Form 5472 purposes only. This is the group most freelancers fall into.

The disregarded-entity rule has existed since the 2017 tax year. Before that, a foreign-owned single-member LLC with no US business often had no federal filing at all. The change was aimed at transparency, so the IRS now gets a yearly snapshot of who owns the LLC and how money moved between the LLC and its owner. If you are still deciding on a structure, our guide to forming a US LLC as a non-resident explains the options before you get to this filing.

Some exceptions that apply to corporations, such as related parties filing Form 5471, do not apply to foreign-owned disregarded entities, according to the IRS Instructions for Form 5472.

What counts as a reportable transaction?

For a foreign-owned disregarded entity, a reportable transaction is almost any movement of money or property between the LLC and a related party, including the owner. Common examples:

Transaction	Reportable?	Where it usually goes
Owner pays formation fees, registered agent or state tax for the LLC	Yes	Part IV or Part V, plus statement
Owner transfers money into the LLC bank account	Yes (contribution)	Part V, with a statement
LLC transfers profits to the owner's personal account	Yes (distribution)	Part V, with a statement
LLC pays the owner's other company for services	Yes	Part IV
LLC lends money to the owner, or borrows from them	Yes	Part IV (amounts borrowed or loaned)
Payments from unrelated US clients for your invoices	No (not related-party)	Not on Form 5472
Fees to Stripe, Wise or a bank	No (unrelated)	Not on Form 5472

The instructions specifically say foreign-owned disregarded entities check the Part V box for transactions such as those tied to formation, dissolution, acquisition, disposition, contributions and distributions, and describe them on an attached statement. Client revenue is not reported on the 5472 itself, but it still matters: your records of invoices and payments are what make the rest of the return defensible.

How to file Form 5472 step by step

1. Get an EIN for the LLC. You cannot file without one. Non-residents usually apply by phone or fax using Form SS-4; see how to get an EIN for the general process.
2. Collect the year's numbers. Pull the LLC bank and payment-platform statements and list every transfer to or from you personally or your other companies.
3. Prepare the pro forma Form 1120. Only the name, address and items B and E on page 1 are required. Write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top.
4. Complete Form 5472. Part I covers the LLC (name, EIN, total assets, country of organization). Part II identifies the 25% foreign owner, including their foreign tax ID or "None". Part III covers related parties. Part IV lists monetary amounts, Part V flags disregarded-entity transactions, and Part VI covers non-monetary or less-than-full-value transactions.
5. Attach a statement describing Part V transactions in plain language, for example "Owner contributed $1,850 to cover formation and registered agent fees".
6. Fax or mail the package to the dedicated IRS address or fax number in the instructions, not the normal Form 1120 address. The IRS listed fax 855-887-7737 and a mailing address in Ogden, Utah at the time of writing; check the current instructions before sending.
7. Keep proof of the fax transmission or tracked mail, plus the records behind every number, permanently.

Form 5472 due date and extensions

The package is due when the pro forma Form 1120 is due. For a calendar-year LLC that is April 15 of the following year, so the 2026 return is due April 15, 2027. If you need more time, file Form 7004 by that date, sent to the same dedicated fax or address, which extends the deadline by six months. An extension of time to file is easy to get and costs nothing, so there is no reason to miss the deadline because the bookkeeping is late.

Note that the foreign owner may have separate US filings. If the LLC is engaged in a US trade or business, for example because work is performed in the US, the owner may need to file Form 1040-NR and pay tax. Our guide on how to file taxes for an LLC covers the different LLC tax treatments.

Worked example: a design studio owner in Pakistan

Ayesha lives in Lahore and owns 100% of a Wyoming LLC that invoices US agencies for branding work. The numbers below are illustrative for the 2026 calendar year.

Item	Amount	Reportable on 5472?
Client payments received for 14 invoices	$48,600	No (unrelated clients)
Stripe and bank fees	$1,410	No
Ayesha paid the Wyoming annual report and registered agent from her personal card	$185	Yes
Initial transfer from Ayesha to the LLC account	$500	Yes (contribution)
Transfers from the LLC to Ayesha's account in Pakistan	$41,000	Yes (distributions)
Total assets at year end (cash in LLC account)	$6,875	Part I, line 1d

Her 5472 reports the $685 she put in and the $41,000 she took out, with a short statement. Her client revenue does not appear on the form, but it is the reason the LLC has money to distribute, and the invoices issued from her LLC name support the whole picture. Because Ayesha performs all services from Pakistan and the LLC has no US office or employees, her adviser concludes there is likely no US income tax, though she reports the income in Pakistan. Her return is due April 15, 2027.

Common Form 5472 mistakes

• Assuming no income means no filing. A single transfer from the owner triggers the requirement.
• E-filing or mailing to the wrong address. The disregarded-entity package goes to a dedicated unit; sending it to the normal Form 1120 address can mean it is never matched.
• Leaving Part II incomplete. The foreign owner's country, foreign tax ID (or "None") and other details are required. A substantially incomplete form is treated as not filed.
• Mixing personal and LLC money. Paying personal expenses from the LLC account creates more related-party transactions and muddles your records. A dedicated account, as covered in our guide to a business bank account for freelancers, makes the 5472 a short job.
• Forgetting state obligations. Form 5472 is federal. The state still wants its annual report or tax: Delaware LLCs pay a flat $400 by June 1, and our Wyoming vs Delaware LLC comparison covers both states.
• Using a "US LLC" invoice without US details. Your invoices should show the LLC's legal name and address, and you may need the LLC's EIN on a W-9 or W-8 form depending on the client; see W-8BEN-E for foreign companies and EIN vs SSN on invoices.

What to do if you missed Form 5472

If you discover that earlier years were never filed, do not simply start filing from the current year and hope. Talk to a US tax professional about filing the missed years with a reasonable-cause statement, or whether a formal relief procedure fits. The IRS can assess penalties for late filings, but voluntarily filed late returns with a clear explanation (for example, that you were a first-time foreign owner relying on a formation service that never mentioned the requirement) are in a much better position than returns filed after an IRS letter. Keep copies of everything you send.

Records to keep

The regulations require permanent books and records that support the return, including related-party transactions. In practice that means:

• Bank and payment-platform statements for every LLC account.
• Copies of every invoice the LLC issued and every bill it paid.
• A simple ledger of owner contributions and distributions.
• Formation documents, the EIN letter and your LLC operating agreement.

Consistent invoicing makes this easy. When every client payment matches a numbered invoice, the year-end exercise is just separating owner transfers from client receipts. You can number invoices with our invoice number generator and keep a clean series from the LLC's first sale.

Form 5472 rewards simple habits: one LLC bank account, a clear record of what you put in and took out, and invoices issued in the LLC's name. Create those invoices with our free invoice generator, with no sign-up needed, and download each one as a PDF for your records.