What to Collect From a Client Before Filing Their Form 5472
The exact field list to gather from a client before preparing their Form 5472, plus a copy-paste request email and the four items that must arrive first.
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Last updated September 18, 2026
Before you prepare a client's Form 5472, collect eight blocks of information: the LLC's legal name, EIN, formation state and date; its tax year; the foreign owner's name, address, citizenship and country of tax residence; an FTIN or a reference ID; every related party; each reportable transaction with US dollar amounts; year-end total assets; and who is authorised to sign.
Intake is where firm filings go wrong. The form is short, and most of it stays blank for a single-member LLC. What breaks a season is a client who sends a bank balance instead of statements, a passport name that does not match the state record, or an answer to "is this your first year" that meant first year of trading.
This is the list we ask partner firms to work from, and every field maps to where it lands on the return. Run this intake, then hand the completed set to us to prepare, review and fax: apply for a partner account. The fields trace to the IRS Instructions for Form 5472, to Form 5472 itself, or to the pro forma Form 1120 cover the return attaches to.
What are the four items you must have before you start anything?
Four items gate everything else. If one is absent, chase it rather than begin work you cannot finish.
- The EIN as it appears on the IRS notice — the CP 575 or a 147C letter, not a number typed from memory. It goes on Part I line 1b and in Box B of the cover.
- The tax year, and an explicit yes or no on whether any earlier year is unfiled. Scope and price both depend on it.
- Full-year statements for every account in the LLC's name, plus anything the owner paid for the LLC personally. Parts IV and V are built from these.
- The name and email of the person authorised to sign. The client's authorised signer signs; your firm does not sign for the client, and neither do we.
Which details about the LLC itself do you need?
Part I describes the LLC, not the owner. These fields populate it and the Form 1120 cover.
| Field | Why it is needed | Where the client finds it | Common failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| LLC's full legal name and US street address | Part I line 1a | Articles of Organization; registered agent letter | A trading name, or the owner's foreign address |
| EIN | Part I line 1b; Box B of the cover | CP 575 or 147C letter | A number typed from memory |
| Formation state and date | Line 1i, the first tax year, the line 1j box, item C of the cover | Formation certificate | Date trading began, not the state filing date |
| Tax year begin and end dates | The tax-year space on both forms | Client's records | Two years merged, or the wrong year filed |
| Principal business activity and code | Part I lines 1d and 1e | Codes list in the Form 1120 instructions | A description with no code |
| First Form 5472 for this LLC, and any unfiled earlier year | Line 1j box; engagement scope and price | Filing history; IRS post | "First year" read as first year of trading |
| Final year, name or address change? | Item E on the cover | Client; state record | A dissolution unmentioned, so Part V amounts are missed |
| Number of related parties with transactions | Line 1g | The transaction review below | Entered as 1 by habit |
That last row is an output of the transaction review: a separate Form 5472 is required for each related party.
Which owner and related-party details does Part II require?
Part II describes the 25%-or-more foreign shareholder; Part III describes the related party the transactions were with. For a single-member LLC those are usually the same person recorded twice, and the identifying-number logic must be right in both places.
| Field | Why it is needed | Where the client finds it | Common failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner's full legal name and foreign residential address | Part II line 4a | Passport; client | A shortened name, or the LLC's US agent address reused |
| US identifying number, if held | Line 4b(1): SSN, ITIN or EIN | ITIN assignment letter | The LLC's EIN used as the owner's |
| Reference ID, where there is no US number | Line 4b(2), required only where no US identifying number is entered; alphanumeric, no spaces, 50 characters, the same every year | Prior-year return, or your firm assigns one | A fresh ID invented each year |
| FTIN | Line 4b(3); a foreign-owned US DE must enter an FTIN, if any, for each Part II owner | Home tax authority document | Left blank instead of "None" |
| Country of citizenship or organisation | Line 4c | Passport | Residence given instead |
| Country of residence, or where the owner files | Line 4d | Home-country return | Collapsed into citizenship |
| Owner's principal business activity | Line 4e | Client | Left blank |
| Does anyone else hold 25% or more? | Line 2; whether a second Part II block applies | Operating agreement | A member admitted mid-year, so the entity may not be disregarded |
| Every other related party, with its country of organisation, country of residence, business activity and identifying number | Part III lines 8a to 8f; one Form 5472 each | Client's ledger; registry extract | The owner's own company treated as a vendor |
Ask citizenship and tax residence as two separate questions in two separate boxes. Asked together, clients answer with whichever country feels more relevant to them. If a client with no US number asks whether to apply for one, the answer is usually no: see whether an ITIN is required for Form 5472.
Which figures do you need for the year?
Clients under-supply this part, because they hear "how much money moved" and reply with one number.
| Field | Why it is needed | Where the client finds it | Common failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets at year end, USD | Part I line 1c, from item D of the cover: total assets on "the accounting method regularly used in keeping the corporation's books and records" at year end | Year-end balance sheet | The bank balance alone, ignoring receivables, inventory or equipment |
| Every related-party monetary transaction, by category and US dollar amount, with the conversion basis for anything not in dollars | Part IV lines 9 to 35: sales, rents, royalties, services, commissions, borrowings, loans, interest, other amounts | Full-year statements for every LLC account | A net figure, or a different exchange rate per line |
| Contributions, distributions, formation and dissolution amounts | Part V, on an attached statement, not the Part IV grid | Statements; the owner's records | Contributions put in Part IV, or no statement attached |
| Loans in either direction, and interest | Part IV lines 17, 31 and 32 | Loan notes | "Loan" and "contribution" used interchangeably |
| Amounts the owner paid personally for the LLC | Related-party transactions although they never touched the LLC's account | Owner's personal statements | Omitted, being absent from the LLC statement |
| Property transferred for less than full consideration | Part VI | Client, if asked | Non-cash transfers never asked about |
| Authorised signer's name, title and email | The cover's signature block; the Form 1120 instructions require an authorised officer to sign | Operating agreement | The firm assumes it may sign |
Ask for statements, not summaries. A summary is already a classification decision, and that is the one decision not to delegate to the client. Keeping the evidence behind the figures is a separate job, covered in the Form 5472 recordkeeping checklist.
What should the client request email actually say?
Short enough that a client reads it, specific enough that one reply completes the file. Copy it, replace the braces, send it.
Subject: Form 5472 for {LLC legal name} — information needed
Hello {client name},
To prepare {LLC legal name}'s Form 5472 for the {year} tax year we need the
following. Please reply with all six items together; we cannot begin on a
partial set.
1. Your EIN notice (CP 575 or 147C), as a PDF or photo.
2. The formation certificate, showing the state and the formation date.
3. Your full legal name exactly as printed in your passport, your
residential address, your country of citizenship, and the country where
you file your own personal tax return. The last two are often different,
so please answer both.
4. Your home-country tax number (FTIN). If your country issues none,
reply "none".
5. Statements for every bank and payment account in the LLC's name covering
the whole of {year}, plus a list of anything you paid for the LLC from a
personal account.
6. The name, title and email of the person authorised to sign for the LLC.
That person signs the return; we cannot sign it on your behalf.
Please also confirm: (a) the LLC's total assets at the end of {year},
(b) whether any earlier year's Form 5472 is still unfiled, and (c) whether
any company or person other than you sent money to, or received money from,
the LLC during {year}.
Reply with the attachments and we will confirm your timeline.
{your name}
{firm name}
Two choices there are deliberate. Citizenship and tax residence are asked as a visibly separate pair, and the last question avoids the term "related party" because clients do not know it and will say they have none.
What do you do when the client cannot supply a field?
No EIN. Nothing can be prepared without one. The route for an owner with no SSN is in getting an EIN without an SSN; if the LLC is new and its first filing is approaching, see the first-year Form 5472 guide.
No FTIN. Some countries issue no individual tax number. Record "None" or "N/A", enter a reference ID on line 4b(2), and reuse that same ID every year. Store it in the client file, not in somebody's inbox.
Incomplete records. Do not let an estimate enter the return as a figure; go back to the statements. Where a record genuinely cannot be reconstructed, that is a matter for a qualified adviser on the specific facts. The IRS instructions state that a $25,000 penalty may apply where a reporting corporation fails to file when due and in the prescribed manner, files a substantially incomplete Form 5472, or fails to maintain the required records. It is not automatic for every mistake, but it is why a guessed figure is the wrong answer.
What does your firm confirm before the package is submitted?
- The signer is the client's authorised person, named and titled, signing personally. Your firm coordinates; it does not sign.
- The related-party count matches the number of Forms 5472 filed for the year.
- A Part V statement exists wherever the Part V box is checked, and reconciles to the Part I totals.
- Transmission evidence is filed with the package. A provider fax receipt records that a transmission occurred. It is not IRS acceptance of the return, and should never be presented to a client as confirmation that the filing was accepted.
We prepare and submit the package, and a qualified tax accountant reviews every one. We are not a CPA firm and do not give tax advice, so a client's tax question belongs with a qualified adviser. Apply the same caution to your own marketing: describe the filing service you provide, not advice your firm is not qualified to give.
Partner pricing matches direct customers — $149 Standard in 5 to 7 business days, $199 Express within 3, plus $99 per additional past year, IRS fax included, no platform fee. What your firm charges its own client on top is your own decision, and we pay no commission.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common missing item at intake?
Full-year statements for every LLC account. Clients send a balance or a summary, which hides the individual related-party amounts Parts IV and V need and quietly nets transfers against each other.
Do I need the client's ITIN to file?
No. Line 4b(1) is completed only if the owner already holds a US identifying number. Otherwise the FTIN on line 4b(3) plus a reference ID on line 4b(2) covers it.
Can my firm sign the return for the client?
No. The person authorised to sign for the LLC signs it. Capture that person's name, title and email at intake; an engagement with no identified signer cannot be completed.
How do I know whether there is more than one related party?
Ask whether any company or person other than the owner sent money to, or received money from, the LLC during the year. Each one needs its own Form 5472.
What if the client's country issues no tax number?
Record "None" or "N/A" for the FTIN and enter a reference ID instead. The instructions limit it to 50 alphanumeric characters with no spaces or special characters, used consistently year to year.
Is a fax receipt confirmation that the filing was accepted?
No. It is evidence that a transmission took place, not an IRS determination that the package was complete, matched, processed or accepted. Tell clients so plainly.
Intake done properly is most of the job: a complete field set, statements rather than summaries, citizenship and tax residence asked separately, and an identified signer before work begins. Apply for a partner account to hand preparation and IRS submission to us, or work through the Form 5472 recordkeeping checklist for the evidence trail behind these figures.
Educational content only; not tax or legal advice.