IRS Form 5472
The annual federal information return required from foreign-owned single-member US LLCs treated as disregarded entities. $25,000 penalty for failure to file.
Definition
Form 5472 is filed by 25%-foreign-owned US disregarded entities to report reportable transactions between the entity and its foreign owner (Treas. Reg. § 1.6038A-1(c)(1)). The form is attached to a pro forma Form 1120 and is due April 15 for calendar-year filers. The penalty for failure to file is $25,000 per occurrence.
Context
Form 5472 must be filed even when there were no reportable transactions in the year, as long as the LLC exists. Multi-member LLCs file Form 1065 instead and are not subject to Form 5472 in this way. C-Corporations have different foreign-ownership disclosure schedules on Form 1120 itself.
Example
A Bangladeshi founder owns a Delaware single-member LLC. In 2026, the LLC's only activity was receiving $50,000 from Amazon Seller Central. Form 5472 reports the founder as the 25%+ foreign owner and discloses the capital contributions and distributions between the founder and the LLC. The form is filed with a pro forma Form 1120 by April 15, 2027.
Common pitfalls
- Assuming a zero-transaction year exempts filing. It does not.
- Most low-cost formation services do not warn customers at formation. The Form 5472 awareness brief is one of Delewarellc's explicit differentiators.
- Filing late without a reasonable-cause statement triggers automatic $25,000 penalty.