Form 5472 for Coaches, Consultants and Course Creators With a US LLC

If your single-member US LLC collects course-platform payouts and client retainers, it files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 for each year it had a reportable transaction with its foreign owner. Course sales, retainer invoices and platform fees are not reported. Money you withdraw to your personal account, and LLC costs you pay personally, are.

The pattern is familiar: form a US LLC, open a US business bank account, connect a course platform or invoicing tool to it, and bill clients for coaching retainers and cohort programs. What the LLC does with the money afterward is a separate question the platforms do not answer.

No course-platform dashboard or invoicing tool tells you what belongs on Form 5472, because the form reports dealings between the LLC and its foreign owner, not gross sales. The IRS Instructions for Form 5472 state a $25,000 penalty for failure to file when due and in the manner prescribed, and that a substantially incomplete form counts as a failure to file. We prepare and fax the complete package from $149.

Does a coaching or course business's US LLC have to file Form 5472?

Yes, in most years. A foreign-owned US single-member LLC files if three things are true: it is a disregarded entity for US tax purposes, its owner is a foreign person, and during the tax year it had at least one reportable transaction with that owner or another foreign related party.

Under Treas. Reg. § 1.6038A-1, for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2017 and ending on or after 13 December 2017, a foreign-owned US disregarded entity is treated as a corporation separate from its owner solely for the § 6038A reporting rules. That is why a coaching or course LLC that owes no US corporate tax still files a corporate-style information return.

Coaches and consultants meet the third condition almost automatically: a single transfer to your personal account is a reportable transaction, as is money you put in to cover a slow month or to open the account.

Whether the LLC owes US income tax at all is a separate question, covered in does a foreign-owned LLC pay US tax. Form 5472 is due either way, including in years the LLC ran at a loss.

Which coaching, consulting and course-business movements are reportable?

Classify every movement by who is on the other side. Students, clients, course platforms, processors and software vendors are unrelated counterparties; you, and any company you own or control, are related parties.

Part V covers amounts "including contributions to, and distributions from, the entity," described on an attached statement. For a coaching LLC, the monthly transfer to your personal account is that distribution. For non-coaching examples of the same categories, see reportable transactions examples; for the statement itself, see the Part V statement example.

Are course-platform payouts and client retainers reportable?

No, not when the platform or client is paying the LLC for coaching, a course, or a program delivered outside your related-party group. Customer revenue is not reportable, whether it arrives as a course purchase, a payment-plan installment, or a monthly retainer. Withdrawing a course platform's balance to the LLC's own bank account is not one either — the money moves between two places the LLC already owns.

Three details matter in practice:

• Whose name is on the account. Keep the platform account, payout method and bank account all in the LLC's name. If a client pays you personally and you then forward the money to the LLC, that transfer is itself an owner movement, not customer revenue.
• Gross versus net. The price a student sees, the platform's fee, and the amount the bank account receives are three different numbers, none a Form 5472 figure by itself.
• Paying a co-coach or assistant you also own. A company you control abroad is a foreign related party, and LLC payments to it are reportable and may need a separate Form 5472, covered in related-party services and management fees.

What do course and payment platforms' own help centres say about payouts?

We checked the platforms' own help-centre articles on 20 September 2026 and describe only what they state.

• Teachable. Teachable's Teachable Pay article (the product was previously called Teachable Payments) says earnings are paid out on a schedule the owner selects — daily, weekly, or monthly — and states: "Your earnings are paid directly to your bank account via Stripe, according to the schedule you selected."
• Kajabi. Kajabi's "Why Kajabi Payments?" article says Kajabi Payments "is built in partnership with Stripe," creators do not manage a separate Stripe account, and "payouts go to the bank account you connect during setup, on a regular schedule." It does not state a fee percentage on that page.

Both confirm the mechanic that matters here: the platform settles unrelated-customer revenue into the LLC's own bank account on its own schedule. That settlement is not an owner transaction; what you do with the balance once it lands is. Coaches invoicing retainer clients through a processor rather than a course platform follow the same logic; see how Stripe, PayPal and Wise payouts map to Form 5472.

How does a coach's year reach Form 5472?

Consider this illustrative example created for this guide, not client data. A non-US business coach owns a disregarded Wyoming LLC; all course-platform and invoicing accounts are in the LLC's name. The LLC's US bank account starts the year with $6,000. The fee amount below is an assumption for the example, not any platform's actual rate.

Revenue arithmetic. Gross course billings $50,000 − platform fee $2,000 = net course payouts $48,000. Retainer invoices add $36,000 in unrelated client revenue.

Bank arithmetic. Opening $6,000 + course payouts $48,000 + retainer payments $36,000 − software bills $4,800 − owner transfers $60,000 = $25,200 closing balance. The two personally paid items never touch the LLC bank account, so they do not appear here.

Form 5472 arithmetic. Owner movements for the filing are $60,000 out to the owner plus $2,500 of LLC costs the owner paid ($900 + $1,600), a total of $62,500. Report these amounts in their proper categories on the Part V statement; do not net the $2,500 in against the $60,000 out, and do not report the $50,000 in course sales, the $36,000 in retainers, or any platform or software fees at all.

A later reimbursement of the laptop would be a second, separately tracked reportable movement.

What records should a coach or consultant keep for the filing?

Build the file once a year.

1. Download the course platform's annual sales or payout report and export retainer invoices from your billing tool.
2. Export the LLC's bank and business card statements for the same period, and reconcile gross sales, fees and net payouts to bank deposits.
3. List every transfer between the LLC and your personal accounts, with date, direction and amount.
4. List every LLC cost you paid personally, with the invoice and payment proof.
5. Decide, and write down, whether each owner movement is a contribution, distribution, loan or reimbursement.
6. Convert any non-USD amounts to US dollars and record the rate and its source.
7. Keep the signed package, the Part V statement and the fax receipt together.

The penalty also applies to a failure to maintain required records. A fuller checklist is at Form 5472 recordkeeping.

When and how is the coaching LLC's filing made?

For a calendar-year LLC, the 2025 package is generally due 15 April 2026. A timely Form 7004, filed under the special DE instructions, extends it.

The package is Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120 with "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across page 1, where only the LLC's name, address and items B and E are required. With no US taxpayer ID, the instructions provide for a foreign tax identifying number and a reference ID number.

1. Prepare Form 5472 and the Part V statement from your owner-movement schedule.
2. Prepare the pro forma Form 1120 with the "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" header, and sign and date it.
3. Fax the package to the IRS at 855-887-7737, or mail it to Internal Revenue Service, 1973 Rulon White Blvd, M/S 6112, Attn: PIN Unit, Ogden, UT 84201 — it cannot be e-filed.
4. Keep the fax receipt: transmission evidence, not IRS acceptance of the return.

The About Form 5472 page links the current form and instructions.

How can Form5472 Prep handle a coaching or course-business filing?

We prepare Form 5472, the pro forma Form 1120 and the Part V statement from your course-platform reports and owner-movement schedule, have a qualified accountant review each package, fax it to the IRS, and send you the timestamped receipt.

Standard is $149 (5–7 business days); Express is $199 (3 business days); each additional past year is +$99; IRS fax delivery is included. See Form 5472 cost.

We are not a CPA firm and do not give tax advice; we prepare and submit the information return. Whether your income is effectively connected with a US trade or business, and your home-country tax, are questions for the appropriate adviser.

Frequently asked questions

Do course sales go on Form 5472?

No. Payments from students, paid through a course platform into the LLC, are business revenue. Form 5472 reports transactions with the foreign owner or other foreign related parties, not gross sales.

Are retainer invoices from consulting clients reportable?

No. A retainer paid by an unrelated client is ordinary business revenue. It becomes relevant only once it is inside the LLC and you move some of it to yourself.

Is the course platform's processing fee a related-party transaction?

No. The platform is an unrelated service provider, so its fee is an ordinary operating expense. It belongs in the books, not on Form 5472.

I paid for a course-recording laptop personally. Does that count?

Generally yes. Funding an LLC cost from personal money is a movement between owner and LLC. Record it as a contribution, loan or reimbursable amount and keep the receipt.

Is moving money from the LLC to my personal account reportable?

Yes, usually as a distribution. Report the year's total in the proper category on the Part V statement rather than as unexplained cash.

My course business earned nothing this year. Do I still file?

Possibly. Funding the LLC, paying its bills personally, or withdrawing money is a reportable transaction even with no course sales; a year with no owner movements at all may not require the form.

Do I file a separate Form 5472 for each platform or client?

No. The form is filed per foreign related party, not per platform or client. A sole owner usually files one Form 5472 covering all course-platform and retainer income combined.

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Your course platform and retainer invoices show what you earned; your owner transfers show what Form 5472 reports. This business differs from platform freelancing mainly in where the revenue comes from — retainers and course-platform payouts here, per-contract gig payments there — but the filing mechanics are identical; see Form 5472 for Freelancers Using a US LLC on Upwork, Fiverr and Toptal if part of your income also runs through a freelance platform. Start your Form 5472 package.

Splitting the year across several countries? The Form 5472 guide for digital nomads covers filing when you have no single tax residence.

Educational content only; not tax or legal advice.