How to Fill Out Form 5472: A Part-by-Part Walkthrough for Foreign-Owned LLCs

To complete Form 5472 as a foreign-owned US single-member LLC: fill Part I with the LLC's details and check the box on line 3, Part II with the foreign owner's details and foreign tax ID, Part III with the related party, Part IV with monetary transactions, and Part V with contributions and distributions on an attached statement. Attach it to a pro forma Form 1120 and fax to 855-887-7737.

Form 5472 is two pages and nine parts, most of which a small foreign-owned LLC leaves blank. The difficulty is not volume — it is knowing which parts apply to a disregarded entity, because the form was designed for foreign multinationals and only later extended to single-member LLCs. The instructions never quite say "here is the short version for you."

This walkthrough is the short version. It follows Form 5472 (Rev. December 2023) and the Instructions (Rev. December 2024), which are the current revisions as of August 2026. Always check the revision date in the top-right corner of the PDF you downloaded — using a stale version is one of the most common DIY errors.

If at any point this stops being worth your afternoon, we prepare and fax the complete package from $149.

What documents do you need before you start?

Gather these first. Missing any one of them will stall you halfway through:

The LLC's EIN — not your personal tax number. If you do not have one, see getting an EIN without an SSN.
The LLC's legal name and formation date, exactly as on the state filing.
The LLC's US address — usually the registered agent address.
Total assets at year end, in US dollars.
Your own full legal name, foreign address, and country of citizenship/residence.
Your Foreign Taxpayer Identifying Number (FTIN) — your home country's tax ID, or a reference ID if your country does not issue one.
A complete list of every transfer between you and the LLC during the year, both directions, with dates and US dollar amounts.

Item 7 is the one people underestimate. Pull the LLC's full bank and payment-processor statements for the year, not just a summary.

The pro forma Form 1120 cover

Form 5472 for a disregarded entity is never filed on its own. It attaches to a pro forma Form 1120, which acts as a cover sheet and computes no tax.

Complete only:

Name and address — the LLC's.
Employer identification number (Box B) — the LLC's EIN.
Date incorporated (Box C) — the LLC's formation date.
Total assets (Box D) — year-end total assets in US dollars.
The signature block — signed and dated. The IRS expects a genuine signature on these filings.

Then write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top of page 1. The instructions state this explicitly: "'Foreign-owned U.S. DE' should be written across the top of the Form 1120."

Leave every income, deduction, tax and schedule line blank. Do not complete Schedules C, J, K, L, M-1 or M-2. This is not a tax return and filling it in like one causes processing problems.

Part I — Reporting Corporation

Part I describes the LLC, not you. Putting the owner's name here is one of the most frequent DIY errors, and it makes the return substantially incomplete.

Line	What goes there
1a	The LLC's legal name and US address
1b	The LLC's EIN
1c	Total assets at year end, US dollars
1d / 1e	Principal business activity description and code
1f	Total value of all foreign related party transactions reported in Parts IV, V and VI of this Form 5472
1g	Total number of Forms 5472 being filed for the year, including this one
1h	Total value of foreign related party transactions across all Forms 5472 filed for the year
1i	Country of incorporation — United States
1j	Check if this is the first year the LLC has filed a Form 5472
1k	Number of Parts VIII attached — leave blank; cost sharing arrangements do not apply to a typical small LLC
1l-1o	Country(ies) under whose laws the reporting corporation files an income tax return as a resident, and related items
Line 2	Ownership percentage question — a wholly owned foreign-owned LLC answers yes
Line 3	Check this box if you are a foreign-owned U.S. DE.

Three lines deserve special attention.

Line 3 is the line that identifies you. The instructions for line 3 read simply: "Check this box if you are a foreign-owned U.S. DE." If it is not checked, the return does not announce itself as a disregarded-entity filing, and it may be processed as something else entirely.

Lines 1f and 1h are where disregarded entities differ from corporations. The instructions for line 1f say to enter "the total value in U.S. dollars of all foreign related party transactions reported in Parts IV and VI (and if the reporting corporation is a foreign-owned U.S. DE, Part V) of this Form 5472." That parenthetical is doing the work: your Part V contributions and distributions are included in the line 1f total, even though Part V itself is a described attachment rather than a numeric grid. Line 1h is the same figure aggregated across every Form 5472 you file for the year — identical to 1f when you file only one.

Line 1g is usually 1. You file a separate Form 5472 for each related party you had reportable transactions with. A single-owner LLC that only transacted with its owner files one form and enters 1. If the LLC also transacted with, say, your foreign company, that is a second Form 5472 and line 1g becomes 2.

Part II — 25% Foreign Shareholder

Part II describes you — the foreign owner. Complete it for the direct 25%-or-more foreign shareholder; for a single-member LLC that is one person holding 100%.

Enter:

Your full legal name and foreign address. Do not use the LLC's US registered agent address here. The whole point of Part II is to record where the foreign owner actually is.
Line 4b(1) — your US identifying number (SSN, ITIN or EIN) if you have one. Most foreign owners do not, and that is fine.
Line 4b(2) — your reference ID number, used when there is no US identifying number.
Line 4b(3) — your FTIN, the tax identification number issued by your country of residence.
Principal country(ies) where business is conducted, country of citizenship/organization, and the country(ies) under whose laws you file an income tax return as a resident.

You do not need a US ITIN to file Form 5472. The form provides for a foreign tax ID precisely because most foreign shareholders do not have US tax numbers. Applying for an ITIN solely to file Form 5472 wastes months and several hundred dollars.

If your country does not issue individual tax identification numbers at all — the UAE and several others — leave the FTIN blank and use a reference ID number, applied consistently every year.

Part III — Related Party

Part III describes the related party the reported transactions were with. For a single-member LLC whose only related party is its owner, Part III repeats the owner's details from Part II, with the same identifying-number logic on lines 8b(1) and 8b(2).

Check the box indicating whether the related party is a foreign person and whether they are a related party. Both are yes in the standard case.

If you had reportable transactions with more than one related party, each gets its own complete Form 5472 — you do not list several parties on one form.

Part IV — Monetary Transactions

Part IV is a numeric grid of transaction categories: sales and purchases of stock in trade, rents and royalties received and paid, consideration for services, commissions, amounts borrowed and loaned, interest, premiums, and "other amounts received" and "other amounts paid."

For a typical small foreign-owned LLC, most of these lines are blank. The ones that commonly get used:

Line 17, Amounts borrowed — money the LLC borrowed from you, if characterized as a loan rather than a contribution.
Line 21, Other amounts received — a catch-all for amounts received from the related party that fit no listed category.
Line 31, Amounts loaned — money the LLC lent to you.
Line 32, Interest paid — interest on any such loan.
Line 35, Other amounts paid — the catch-all in the paid direction.
Consideration for services lines — if you invoiced your own LLC for services, or it paid you for services.

Amounts are in US dollars, converted at a reasonable rate for the transaction date and applied consistently.

Capital contributions and distributions do not go in Part IV. They are not among the listed categories. They go in Part V. Putting them in Part IV, or in Part IV and Part V, is a common and avoidable error.

Part V — Reportable Transactions of a Foreign-Owned U.S. DE

Part V exists only for disregarded entities, and for most small foreign-owned LLCs it is the most important part of the form.

The instructions direct a foreign-owned DE to check the box if it had any other transaction as defined in Regulations section 1.482-1(i)(7) that is not already entered in Part IV — including amounts paid or received in connection with the formation, dissolution, acquisition and disposition of the entity — and to "describe these on an attached statement."

In practice, that attached statement is where your ordinary owner funding lives:

Capital contributions to the LLC
Distributions from the LLC to you
Amounts connected with forming the entity
Amounts connected with dissolving it, in a final year

Your Part V supporting statement should list, for each transaction: the date, a description ("capital contribution by member", "distribution to member"), the US dollar amount, and the direction. Add a total. Head it with the LLC's name and EIN so it cannot be separated from the return in processing.

Then carry the Part V total into the line 1f and line 1h figures in Part I, as the instructions require.

Parts VI, VII, VIII and IX

Part VI — Nonmonetary and Less-Than-Full Consideration Transactions. Complete only if you transferred property to or from the LLC for no consideration or less than full consideration. Blank for most filers.
Part VII — Additional Information. A short series of yes/no questions, including whether the reporting corporation is a party to a cost sharing arrangement and questions relating to base erosion. Answer them; do not skip the part.
Part VIII — Cost Sharing Arrangement (CSA). Blank for essentially every small LLC.
Part IX — Base Erosion Payments under Section 59A. The base erosion and anti-abuse tax applies to corporations with very large gross receipts. Blank for small filers.

Leaving a part blank because it does not apply is correct. Leaving a part blank because you did not read it is how a return becomes substantially incomplete — and the instructions state that a substantially incomplete Form 5472 "constitutes a failure to file Form 5472," which carries the full $25,000 penalty under IRC § 6038A(d).

How do you file the finished package?

You cannot e-file. The instructions are unambiguous: "If you are a foreign-owned U.S. DE, you cannot file Form 5472 electronically."

Assemble in order: pro forma Form 1120 (signed, "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top), then Form 5472, then the Part V supporting statement, then a reasonable cause statement if the filing is late.
Send by fax to 855-887-7737, or mail to Internal Revenue Service, 1973 Rulon White Blvd, M/S 6112, Attn: PIN Unit, Ogden, UT 84201.
Keep the timestamped transmission receipt. The IRS sends no acknowledgement for these filings. The fax confirmation is your only evidence of timely filing, and you may need it years later.
Deadline: 15 April for a calendar-year LLC, or 15 October if you filed Form 7004 on time. 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. See our Form 5472 extension guide.

The eight errors that cause most rejections

Putting the owner's name in Part I instead of the LLC's.
Not checking line 3, the foreign-owned US DE box.
Leaving the FTIN blank in Part II with no reference ID either.
Putting capital contributions in Part IV instead of Part V.
Omitting the Part V attached statement entirely — the box checked with nothing described.
Line 1f and 1h totals that do not reconcile with Parts IV, V and VI.
Filing a real Form 1120 with income and deductions instead of a pro forma cover.
Using an outdated form revision, or sending it to the wrong IRS address.

Every one of these is the kind of error the instructions treat as a substantially incomplete return.

If you would rather not do this yourself

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Frequently asked questions

Which parts of Form 5472 does a single-member LLC complete?

Parts I, II, III and V in essentially every case, Part IV where listed monetary transaction categories apply, and Part VII's questions. Parts VI, VIII and IX are normally blank for a small foreign-owned LLC.

Where do capital contributions go on Form 5472?

In Part V, described on an attached statement, not in Part IV. The Part V total is then included in the Part I line 1f and line 1h figures. Contributions connected with forming the entity belong there too.

Do I need a US tax ID to complete Part II?

No. Enter your Foreign Taxpayer Identifying Number on line 4b(3). If your country issues no individual tax ID, leave it blank and use a reference ID number on line 4b(2), applied consistently in every year you file.

Can I fill in Form 5472 in a spreadsheet or a third-party PDF?

Use the official IRS PDF from irs.gov and check the revision date in the top-right corner. Reconstructed or outdated forms cause processing problems, and an old revision is one of the more common DIY mistakes.

What is written across the top of the Form 1120?

"Foreign-owned U.S. DE" — written across the top of page 1. The IRS instructions state this requirement directly, and it is how the Ogden PIN Unit identifies the filing type.

How many Forms 5472 do I file?

One for each related party with which the LLC had reportable transactions. A single-owner LLC transacting only with its owner files one, and enters 1 on line 1g.

Nine parts, most of them blank, one attached statement that carries the real content, and a fax number. Work through it carefully or hand it over.

File with us, or compare the options in our DIY vs. preparer breakdown.