A US single-member LLC that's wholly owned by a foreign person and disregarded for tax has no income tax return of its own, but it must file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached by the Form 1120 due date, including extensions: April 15 for a calendar year. The penalty for not filing is $25,000.
Check the date against your own records.
Who files
- A US LLC that's disregarded for tax and wholly owned by one foreign person, which is treated as a corporation for this purpose
- A US corporation that's at least 25% foreign-owned, attaching Form 5472 to its own Form 1120
The pro forma Form 1120
Only the LLC's name and address and items B and E on the first page of Form 1120 are completed. The LLC uses its owner's tax year for US filing, or the calendar year if the owner has none. Foreign-owned LLCs send it to a dedicated IRS address given in the instructions.
What Form 5472 reports
Transactions between the LLC and its foreign owner or other related parties during the year, such as money the owner puts in or takes out.
The penalty
$25,000 for not filing Form 5472 when due, or for not keeping the records the rules require. A substantially incomplete form counts as not filing.
Also on the calendar
A Delaware LLC also pays its annual tax by June 1. If it has foreign bank accounts worth more than $10,000 in total, it files an FBAR by April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15.
Get reminded before it's due
Regmindr tracks this alongside the rest of your compliance calendar, and emails your team before each deadline. Set it up from your year end in about two minutes.
Sources
This page is a summary, not legal or regulatory advice. The rules in the sources above take precedence.