For a foreign-owned single-member US LLC, any money or property that moves between you and the LLC is a reportable transaction — including state fees, registered-agent fees and other LLC costs you pay personally, and loans either way. Sales to unrelated customers and payments to unrelated vendors are not.
Reportable: money you put in or take out, loans and interest, LLC bills you paid yourself, property you contribute, dealings with your family or other companies you control.
Not reportable: payments from unrelated customers and payments by the LLC to unrelated vendors or contractors.
What happened this tax year?
Tick every item that applies to your LLC for one tax year. “You” means the foreign owner of a US single-member LLC.
Your result
Tick everything that happened in one tax year
Your answer, where each item goes on Form 5472, and a link you can share will appear here.
General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the answer; for advice on your situation, speak to a tax professional.
Quick reference
Every transaction type, answered
The same answers the checker gives, for all 16 transaction types. “You” is the foreign owner of a US single-member LLC that has not elected to be taxed as a corporation.
Money in
Reportable
You transfer money into the LLC's bank account
Start-up money, top-ups, or covering a shortfall — from your personal account or any other account of yours.
Where it goes: Part V, as a contribution to the LLC.
For a foreign-owned single-member LLC, the regulation names “contributions to … the entity” as a reportable transaction. It does not matter that it is your own money, that the LLC had no income, or how small the transfer was — the rules set no minimum. The regulation’s own example treats an owner’s later transfer of funds to its LLC as reportable in the year it happens. If the money is a loan you expect back, see the loan item instead.
Owner draws, profit distributions, moving money to your personal account, or a final payout when the LLC closes.
Where it goes: Part V, as a distribution from the LLC.
“Distributions from the entity” are named in the regulation as reportable for a foreign-owned single-member LLC, and the regulation’s example treats both a payment from the LLC to its owner and a final distribution when it is liquidated as reportable. Moving money to your own account counts, even though for income tax the LLC and you are otherwise treated as one taxpayer.
Your personal rent, travel, card bill or shopping paid from the LLC's account or card.
Where it goes: Part V, as money moving from the LLC to you (like a distribution).
Money that leaves the LLC for your benefit is a transfer to you, even though it went to a shop or landlord rather than your own bank account. The definition of “transaction” the regulation uses covers any transfer of money “however such transaction is effected”, and distributions from the LLC are expressly reportable.
Including the LLC paying you back and any interest it pays you. A balance still owed from an earlier year counts too.
Where it goes: Part IV, as money the LLC borrowed (the loan balance) plus any interest paid.
Amounts loaned and borrowed, and interest paid and received, are listed reportable transactions. The instructions ask for the balance “including borrowings in place at the beginning of the tax year”, so a loan from you is reported every year it is outstanding — even a year with no new transfers or repayments. If no interest is charged, it may also need a Part VI description as a less-than-full-consideration transaction; we check that.
Including you paying it back and any interest you pay. A balance you still owe from an earlier year counts too.
Where it goes: Part IV, as money the LLC loaned (the loan balance) plus any interest received.
The regulation lists amounts loaned and interest received as reportable, and the instructions ask for the balance “including loans in place at the beginning of the tax year”. So a loan from the LLC to you is reported every year a balance is outstanding, whether or not anything was repaid. If no interest is charged, it may also need a Part VI description as a less-than-full-consideration transaction; we check that.
The state formation (filing) fee, annual report fee or franchise tax, paid from your own card or account.
Where it goes: Part V, as a formation payment or a contribution to the LLC.
Paying the LLC’s bill with your own money is a transfer from you to the LLC. The regulation lists “amounts paid or received in connection with the formation” of the LLC and “contributions to” it as reportable, and counts transfers of money “however such transaction is effected”. It is easy to miss: an LLC with no bank activity at all still has a reportable transaction if its owner paid the state.
The registered-agent fee or a formation-service package, paid from your own card or account.
Where it goes: Part V, as a contribution to the LLC (a formation payment in the first year).
The registered agent serves the LLC, so when you pay its fee you cover an LLC cost with your own money — a transfer to the LLC that the regulation treats as a reportable transaction however it is carried out. In the formation year it is also an amount paid in connection with forming the LLC. If the LLC paid the agent from its own account instead, that payment is not reportable (see the unrelated-vendors item).
Software, website, bank or payment-processor fees, bookkeeping, advertising — anything the LLC uses.
Where it goes: Part V, as a contribution to the LLC.
Same rule as state and agent fees: each time you pay an LLC expense with your own money, value moves from you to the LLC, and for a foreign-owned single-member LLC any such transfer is a reportable transaction. Amounts are reported in US dollars with the exchange rates used, so keep receipts showing the date and currency of each payment.
The LLC reimburses you for an LLC expense you first paid from your own money.
Where it goes: Usually Part V, alongside your original payment; Part IV if your payment was really a loan to the LLC. We work out which.
Your original payment moved money from you to the LLC, and the reimbursement moves money from the LLC back to you. Each is a transfer under the regulation’s definition of a transaction, so they do not cancel each other out just because the amounts match. How they are presented depends on whether the payment was a contribution or an advance you expected back.
Crypto, equipment, a car, inventory, shares, a domain name or other intellectual property.
Where it goes: Part V as a contribution, plus a Part VI description because no money changed hands. We confirm the split.
Contributions are reportable whether they are cash or property: the definition of a transaction covers transfers of “any property (whether tangible or intangible, real or personal)”, and the regulation’s example has the owner forming the LLC and contributing assets. When property rather than money moves with a foreign owner, the rules also ask for a description of what was transferred and a reasonable estimate of its fair market value.
A management fee, consulting fee or salary-style payment from the LLC to you.
Where it goes: Part IV, as a payment for services (Part V instead if it is really a draw of profits).
“Consideration paid and received for technical, managerial, … or other services” is a listed reportable transaction, and the person paid here is you — a related party. Calling the payment a fee rather than a distribution does not take it off Form 5472; it only changes where it is shown.
You run the business yourself and take no fee or salary for it.
Where it goes: Possibly Part VI (services for less than full value). We check it for you.
The definition of a transaction includes “the performance of any services for the benefit of, or on behalf of, another taxpayer”, and non-cash or below-value dealings with a foreign related party must be described on Form 5472. But neither the regulation nor the instructions say how an owner running their own single-member LLC should be treated, so we look at what you actually did before deciding. If the LLC has any other reportable transaction that year, it files Form 5472 either way.
The LLC deals with another company you own or control
Buying from, selling to, lending to, or paying fees to your foreign company or another LLC of yours.
Where it goes: On a separate Form 5472 for that company. If it is foreign: Part IV for money-only dealings, Part VI for non-cash or below-value ones. If it is a US company, the instructions do not require the amounts to be itemised in Parts IV–VI.
A company you own more than 50% of, or otherwise control, is a related party of your LLC (through IRC §267(b) and the §482 control test). The regulation requires a separate Form 5472 for each related party the LLC had reportable transactions with, so this usually means a second Form 5472 in the same filing. Sales, purchases, fees, loans and interest with that company are all listed reportable transactions.
Your spouse, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, brothers or sisters.
Where it goes: On a separate Form 5472 for that family member; which part depends on what the payment was for.
Under IRC §267(b)(1) and (c)(4), your brothers and sisters, spouse, ancestors and lineal descendants are related to you, which makes them related parties of your LLC. Paying them for work, buying from them, lending to them or sending them money are reportable transactions, and each family member the LLC dealt with gets their own Form 5472.
Sales through Stripe, PayPal, Amazon or Shopify, or client invoices — from customers anywhere in the world.
Where it goes: Not on Form 5472.
Form 5472 covers transactions with related parties — you, your close family, and companies you own or control. An ordinary customer is not a related party, even if they are outside the US, so their payments are not reportable transactions. The exception: if the “customer” is you, a relative or a company you control, see those items.
The LLC pays vendors or contractors you're not related to
Paid from the LLC's own account or card: software, freelancers, advertising, the registered agent.
Where it goes: Not on Form 5472.
Payments from the LLC’s own funds to unrelated businesses and freelancers are not related-party transactions, so they do not go on Form 5472 — even when the contractor is abroad. What matters is who paid: if you paid the vendor with your own money, that is a reportable transfer from you to the LLC (see the costs-you-paid-personally items).
Every answer applies three questions to the IRS instructions for Form 5472 and the Treasury regulations behind them. Where those sources do not settle a case, the checker says “Depends” rather than guessing.
Step 1
Is the other side a related party?
You are one, as the LLC's foreign owner. So are your spouse, brothers and sisters, ancestors (parents, grandparents) and descendants (children, grandchildren), and companies you own more than 50% of or otherwise control (Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-1(d), via IRC §267(b) and §482). Unrelated customers and vendors are not.
Step 2
Did money, property or services move?
A foreign-owned single-member LLC is treated as a separate corporation for Form 5472 (Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-1(c)(1)). On top of the usual list of sales, services, loans and interest, it must report “any other transaction” in the sense of §1.482-1(i)(7) — any transfer of money or property, however carried out, including contributions and distributions (§1.6038A-2(b)(3)(xi)).
Step 3
Which part of the form?
Money-only dealings with a foreign related party go in Part IV; contributions, distributions and other transfers go in Part V; non-cash or below-value dealings with a foreign related party are described in Part VI (§1.6038A-2(b)(3)–(4) and the Form 5472 instructions).
The key rule, word for word
“With respect to an entity that is a reporting corporation as a result of being treated as a corporation under § 301.7701-2(c)(2)(vi) of this chapter, any other transaction as defined by § 1.482-1(i)(7), such as amounts paid or received in connection with the formation, dissolution, acquisition and disposition of the entity, including contributions to and distributions from the entity.”
Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-2(b)(3)(xi), added by T.D. 9796. The §1.482-1(i)(7) definition it points to covers any “transfer of any interest in or a right to use any property … or money, however such transaction is effected”.
The parts of Form 5472, in plain words
Part IV — money-only dealings
Transactions with a foreign related party where money was the only thing exchanged: loans, interest, sales, purchases and payments for services.
Part V — the part for foreign-owned US LLCs
Only for foreign-owned US disregarded entities: other money or property moving between the LLC and a related party, such as contributions, distributions and formation or closing payments. Described on an attached statement.
Part VI — non-cash or below-value dealings
Transactions with a foreign related party paid for with property or services instead of money, or for less than full value. Described on an attached statement with an estimated value.
Transactions with a US related party still count, but the instructions do not require them to be itemised in Parts IV–VI. Amounts are reported in US dollars with the exchange rates used.
Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-2 (eCFR)What is reportable: (b)(3) monetary categories, (b)(3)(xi) the extra rule for foreign-owned disregarded entities, (b)(4) non-cash and below-value transactions.
Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-1 (eCFR)(c)(1) treats a foreign-owned single-member LLC as a corporation for this reporting; (d) defines related party.
T.D. 9796 (Internal Revenue Bulletin 2017-3)The final regulations that brought foreign-owned single-member LLCs into Form 5472 reporting (tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2017 and ending on or after 13 December 2017).
Last reviewed .
General information, not tax advice. We prepare and submit forms from the information you give us; for advice on your own situation, speak to a tax professional.
What do foreign LLC owners ask about reportable transactions?
Is paying my LLC's state fee personally a reportable transaction?+
Yes. When a foreign owner pays the LLC's formation or annual state fee from personal funds, money has moved from the owner to the LLC. Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-2(b)(3)(xi) makes formation payments and contributions reportable, generally in Part V of Form 5472.
Are payments from my customers reportable on Form 5472?+
Not when the customers are unrelated to you. Form 5472 covers transactions with related parties: you, close family members and companies you own or control. Ordinary customer payments, including through Stripe or Amazon, are not reportable, even from customers outside the US.
Is a loan between me and my LLC reportable?+
Yes, in either direction. Amounts loaned and borrowed, and interest, are listed reportable transactions that go in Part IV. The balance is reported every year the loan is outstanding, including a balance carried in from an earlier year with no new transfers.
Is there a minimum amount before a transaction is reportable?+
No. Neither Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-2 nor the Form 5472 instructions set a dollar threshold for a foreign-owned single-member LLC's reportable transactions. A small fee you paid personally counts just as a large transfer does.
What if I leave a reportable transaction off Form 5472?+
Leaving transactions off can make the form substantially incomplete, which the IRS treats as not filing. The penalty is $25,000 per year under IRC §6038A(d), plus $25,000 per 30-day period the failure continues more than 90 days after an IRS notice.
Does my LLC file if none of its transactions are reportable?+
No. A foreign-owned single-member LLC with no reportable transactions in a tax year is not required to file Form 5472 for that year. Check carefully first: LLC fees you paid personally and money moved in or out are easy to overlook.
We report all of these for you
Tell us what moved between you and your LLC. We prepare Form 5472 and the pro forma Form 1120, including the attached statements, and fax the package to the IRS.