What Does a Foreign-Owned US LLC Actually Have to File? The 2026 Checklist

A foreign-owned US single-member LLC generally files two federal items each year: Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120, filed by fax or mail to the IRS Ogden PIN Unit. It also files a state annual report or franchise return. As of the March 2025 FinCEN interim final rule, US-formed LLCs are exempt from BOI reporting. A US income tax return is required only if the LLC has US-source or effectively connected income.

Most owners of a US LLC formed from abroad get one of two wrong answers: either "you don't file anything, the LLC is tax-free" or a formation agent's upsell list that includes filings you do not owe. This checklist separates what is actually required, what is conditional, and what stopped being required in 2026.

If you already know Form 5472 is the piece you are missing, we prepare and fax the complete package from $149. Otherwise, work through the list below.

The 2026 checklist at a glance

Filing	Required?	Deadline (calendar-year LLC)	Where
Form 5472 + pro forma Form 1120	Yes — if any reportable transaction with the foreign owner	April 15; Oct 15 with Form 7004	Fax 855-887-7737 or mail to Ogden PIN Unit
State annual report / franchise tax	Yes — every state, every year	Varies by state (often the formation anniversary)	State Secretary of State
FinCEN BOI report	No for US-formed LLCs since March 2025	—	—
Form 1040-NR (owner)	Only if the owner has US-source or effectively connected income	June 15 (or April 15 if wages subject to withholding)	IRS
Form 1120-F	Only if the owner is a foreign corporation with a US trade or business	Varies	IRS
Forms 1099 / 1042-S	Only if the LLC made reportable US payments	Jan 31 / Mar 15	IRS
FBAR (FinCEN 114)	Generally no — applies to US persons	—	—
Registered agent renewal	Yes — contractual, not tax	Varies	Your agent

Read the conditional rows carefully. Most single-member LLCs owned by a non-US person with no US employees, no US office and no US-based inventory owe rows 1 and 2 and nothing else.

Do I have to file Form 5472?

Yes, if all three are true for the tax year: the LLC is a US disregarded entity, it is wholly owned by a non-US person, and there was at least one reportable transaction between the LLC and its owner or another foreign related party.

Under Treasury Regulation § 1.6038A-1, for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2017, a foreign-owned US disregarded entity is treated as a corporation separate from its owner solely for the purposes of the § 6038A reporting rules. That is the sentence that pulled hundreds of thousands of small single-member LLCs into a regime originally designed for foreign multinationals.

Reportable transactions include money you put into the LLC, money the LLC paid out to you, loans in either direction, and payments for goods or services between you and the LLC. Customer revenue is not a reportable transaction — a Stripe payout from a customer does not go on Form 5472; a transfer from that Stripe balance to your personal account does.

The practical consequence: an LLC that made nothing at all still usually has a reportable transaction, because funding the business bank account when you opened it was a capital contribution. Full worked examples are in our reportable transactions guide.

Penalty for getting this wrong: $25,000 per form, per year under IRC § 6038A(d), assessed automatically. The IRS Instructions for Form 5472 confirm both the amount and that a substantially incomplete form counts as a failure to file.

You cannot e-file it. The instructions state plainly: "If you are a foreign-owned U.S. DE, you cannot file Form 5472 electronically." It goes by fax to 855-887-7737 or by mail to the Ogden PIN Unit.

Do I still have to file a BOI report with FinCEN?

No — not if your LLC was formed in the United States. This is the biggest compliance change affecting foreign-owned US LLCs, and a large amount of content still online has not caught up.

FinCEN published an interim final rule on 26 March 2025 that redefined "reporting company" to mean only entities formed under the law of a foreign country that have registered to do business in a US state or tribal jurisdiction. Under that rule, all entities created in the United States — including everything previously called a "domestic reporting company" — are exempt from reporting beneficial ownership information, and are not required to update or correct BOI previously reported. The rule and its scope are set out in the Federal Register notice and on FinCEN's BOI page.

So:

Wyoming, Delaware, New Mexico, Florida or any other US-formed LLC — foreign-owned or not: no BOI report. The nationality of the owner never mattered; the place of formation is what the rule turns on.
A company formed abroad that registered to do business in a US state: BOI reporting still applies.

If a formation agent or compliance service is still charging you an annual fee to file a BOI report for a US-formed LLC, that filing is not required. Note that BOI has moved several times through litigation and rulemaking since 2024 — check FinCEN's own page before acting, rather than trusting a blog post's summary, including this one.

Do I have to file a US income tax return?

Only if you have income the US actually taxes. Owning a US LLC does not, by itself, create a US tax return obligation for a non-resident owner.

A single-member LLC owned by a non-US person is a disregarded entity for income tax purposes. Its income is treated as the owner's income directly. The question then becomes whether that income is:

Effectively connected income (ECI) — profits from a US trade or business. If yes, the owner generally files Form 1040-NR (individual owner) or Form 1120-F (corporate owner) and pays US tax on the ECI.
Fixed, determinable, annual or periodical (FDAP) US-source income — dividends, certain interest, royalties, rents. Generally subject to 30% withholding at source, reduced by treaty.
Neither — foreign-source income with no US trade or business. Generally no US income tax and no US income tax return, but Form 5472 is still required.

The dividing line is whether you are carrying on a trade or business inside the United States. Having a US LLC, a US bank account, a US registered agent, and US customers does not automatically put you there — the analysis turns on where the work is actually performed and whether you have US employees, agents, or a fixed place of business. Where a treaty applies, the permanent establishment article can override the domestic ECI answer, but claiming it requires a return with the treaty position disclosed.

This is the part of the checklist where you want an actual opinion on your facts, not a blog article. We cover the general shape of the question in do foreign-owned LLCs pay US tax, but a real ECI determination is a tax adviser's job.

The critical point for compliance: "I owe no US tax" and "I have no US filing obligation" are different statements. The overwhelming majority of foreign-owned single-member LLCs owe zero US income tax and are still required to file Form 5472 every year.

What state filings does a foreign-owned LLC have?

Every US LLC owes something to its state of formation, every year, regardless of activity or ownership. Missing it is how LLCs quietly fall into administrative dissolution — at which point the entity's status becomes a problem for its bank, its payment processor, and its owner.

Typical obligations by popular formation state:

Wyoming — annual report with a license tax, due on or before the first day of the LLC's anniversary month. The tax is the greater of $60 or $0.0002 per dollar of assets located and employed in Wyoming, so most small LLCs pay the $60 minimum.
Delaware — annual LLC franchise tax of $300, due 1 June, with penalties and interest for late payment.
New Mexico — no annual report for LLCs, which is why it appears in low-maintenance formation pitches.
Florida — annual report due 1 May, with a substantial late fee.

Verify current amounts on the state's own Secretary of State site before relying on them; state fees change more often than federal rules do. Our Wyoming LLC filing guide covers that state in detail.

Registered agent renewal is separate again — a private contract, not a government filing, but losing it triggers the same administrative-dissolution risk.

What can I safely ignore?

Filings that are commonly sold to foreign LLC owners who do not owe them:

BOI reports for US-formed LLCs. Exempt since the March 2025 interim final rule.
FBAR (FinCEN Form 114). The FBAR obligation applies to US persons with foreign financial accounts. A non-US owner of a US LLC holding a US bank account is generally outside it in both directions.
A "real" Form 1120 with tax computed. The Form 1120 filed with Form 5472 for a disregarded entity is a pro forma cover — entity identification fields and total assets only, with "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" written across the top. It does not compute tax.
Form 5471. That form is filed by a US person who owns a foreign corporation — the opposite direction from your situation.
State income tax returns, where the LLC has no nexus, employees, or property in that state. Formation state alone does not usually create an income tax filing obligation.
ITIN applications, when the only goal is filing Form 5472. You use your home country's tax ID as your Foreign Taxpayer Identifying Number, or a reference ID.

Your annual compliance cycle, in order

January-February — close the books for the prior tax year. Total up every transfer between you and the LLC in both directions.
By 15 April — file Form 5472 with the pro forma Form 1120 by fax to the Ogden PIN Unit, or file Form 7004 by the same date to extend to 15 October. Note the extension quirk: a foreign-owned US DE must fax or mail Form 7004 to the same PIN Unit fax number or address, by the regular due date.
By 15 October — if extended, the Form 5472 package is due.
On your state's schedule — file the annual report and pay the franchise tax or license tax.
Year-round — keep the records. Regulations section 1.6038A-3 imposes a separate record-maintenance requirement with its own $25,000 penalty. Retain bank statements, payment-processor exports, the owner-transfer ledger, and every fax confirmation receipt.

The piece most owners need help with

Rows 2 through 8 of the checklist are either simple, conditional, or handled by an existing provider. Row 1 — Form 5472 with the pro forma Form 1120 — is the one that is mandatory, cannot be e-filed, carries a $25,000 penalty, and has no consumer tax software that supports it. TurboTax and H&R Block cannot submit this filing.

Form5472 Prep does that one row properly: Form 5472 and the pro forma Form 1120 prepared from your entity and transaction details, a Part V supporting statement, a reasonable cause letter if you have late years, review by a qualified tax accountant, and fax delivery to the IRS Ogden PIN Unit with the timestamped receipt returned to you as proof of filing.

$149 standard (ready in 5-7 business days), $199 express (3 business days), +$99 per additional past tax year. Fax delivery included on both — no separate fee. We are not a CPA firm and do not give tax advice; we prepare and submit the return accurately.

Start your filing — about 15 minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Does a foreign-owned US LLC with no income have to file anything?

Usually yes. Form 5472 reports transactions, not income, and funding the LLC's bank account is a reportable capital contribution. The state annual report is also due regardless of activity. A genuinely dormant LLC with no money movement at all is the narrow exception.

Do foreign-owned LLCs still need to file BOI reports in 2026?

No, if the LLC was formed in the United States. FinCEN's interim final rule of 26 March 2025 exempts all US-formed entities from beneficial ownership reporting. Only companies formed abroad and registered to do business in a US state remain reporting companies.

Is Form 5472 the same as a tax return?

No. Form 5472 is an information return. It reports transactions between the LLC and its foreign owner and computes no tax. It is filed attached to a pro forma Form 1120 that is also left mostly blank.

Can I file Form 5472 with TurboTax or an online tax service?

No. The IRS instructions state that a foreign-owned US disregarded entity cannot file Form 5472 electronically. Consumer e-file products cannot submit it. The only accepted routes are fax to 855-887-7737 or mail to the Ogden PIN Unit.

Do I need an EIN for my LLC to file Form 5472?

Yes. The LLC's own EIN goes on both the pro forma Form 1120 and Form 5472. You do not need a personal SSN or ITIN to obtain one — see our guide on getting an EIN without an SSN.

What happens if I miss the state annual report?

The state eventually administratively dissolves the LLC. A dissolved entity loses good standing, which typically breaks banking and payment processing, and reinstatement costs more than the report did. It does not affect the federal Form 5472 obligation, which continues while the entity exists.

Two federal items and one state item covers the great majority of foreign-owned single-member LLCs. The federal one that carries real risk is Form 5472.

Get it filed, or start with what Form 5472 is if you are new to the requirement.