Form 5472 (Foreign-Owned U.S. Entity Information Return)

Form 5472 is the mirror image of Form 5471. Where 5471 reports a foreign company owned by a U.S. person, 5472 reports a U.S. company owned from abroad. It is required of any U.S. corporation that is at least 25% foreign-owned, directly or by attribution through family members and related entities, and that had a reportable transaction with a foreign related party during the year. Since 2017 it is also required of a U.S. single-member LLC owned by a foreign person or company, which for this purpose is treated as a corporation and files the form attached to a pro forma Form 1120 even though the LLC is disregarded for income tax.

Reportable transactions are broad: sales, purchases, services, rent, royalties, interest, management fees, and cost reimbursements between the U.S. entity and the foreign owner or its affiliates. For a disregarded LLC they also include capital contributions, distributions, and loans in either direction, so an LLC whose only activity was receiving its owner's initial funding still files. Each foreign related party gets its own form, amounts are stated in U.S. dollars, and the form asks for the owner's foreign tax identification number and country.

The form is due with the entity's income tax return, April 15 for calendar-year filers with an extension to October 15 if Form 7004 is filed on time. The penalty for a missing, late, or substantially incomplete form is $25,000 per form per year, plus $25,000 for each 30 days the failure continues after 90 days from an IRS notice, and the statute of limitations on the return stays open until the form is filed. Non-willful filers who come forward with a specific reasonable-cause statement under the delinquent international information return procedures are often relieved of the penalty. Rubric Financial prepares Form 5472 and the pro forma Form 1120 as part of the bookkeeping and tax engagement for foreign-owned U.S. small businesses, most often for Indian companies and NRIs who hold a U.S. LLC.