Pro Forma 1120 Filing Service for Non-Resident LLC Owners

Under Treas. Reg. §1.6038A-1(c), a US LLC wholly owned by one foreign person is treated as a domestic corporation for Form 5472 purposes only. That is why it uses a Form 1120 at all.

The Form 5472 instructions require it to file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached. Only a few page-1 items apply:

• The LLC's name and address
• Item B, the employer identification number (EIN)
• The applicable item E boxes: initial return, final return, name change, address change
• "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" written across the top

The income, deduction and tax sections stay blank. No tax is computed on it.

We treat the 1120 cover and Form 5472 as one package, because that is how the IRS receives them.

• We fill the page-1 items from your questionnaire answers and mark the form "Foreign-owned U.S. DE".
• We tick the applicable item E boxes, such as final return for a dissolved LLC.
• We prepare Form 5472 and the Part V statement from the same answers, so the figures match.
• A qualified accountant reviews the package before signing opens.
• You sign online. We fax the package to the IRS Ogden PIN Unit and send you the timestamped receipt.

The cover is short, which makes small errors easy to miss. The accountant review checks, among other things:

• "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" is written across the top of the 1120.
• The income, deduction and tax lines are left blank.
• The 1120 and Form 5472 travel together. One without the other is not a complete filing.
• The EIN and LLC name match on both forms.
• Form 5472 still shows the year-end total assets. The cover does not need Schedule L, but that is not permission to leave the Form 5472 figure blank.

You most likely need the filing if all of these are true:

• The LLC is a US LLC with a single owner.
• The owner is a foreign individual or a foreign company.
• The LLC has not elected to be taxed as a corporation.
• The LLC had a reportable transaction in the year, such as money you put in or took out, or LLC fees you paid personally.

Not sure? The free Do I need to file Form 5472? checker walks through these questions with IRS sources.

• Not a corporate income-tax return. If your LLC elected corporate tax treatment on Form 8832, it files a full Form 1120 that computes tax, with Form 5472 attached. We do not prepare that return.
• Not a way to lower tax. The pro forma return reports no income and no tax.
• Not a personal return. If the owner has a US filing duty of their own, such as Form 1040-NR, that is separate. We do not file it.
• Not penalty relief. If the filing is late, nobody can promise the IRS will not assess the $25,000 penalty under IRC §6038A(d).
• Not tax advice. We prepare forms from the information you give us.

• Prepare it yourself. The form is free on irs.gov. Most of the work is in Form 5472, not the cover: transaction totals, Part V, the signature and the fax. Our reportable transactions checker helps identify what to report.
• A freelance preparer. Ask whether they also prepare Form 5472 and who sends the package to the IRS. A cover page on its own is not a filing.
• An accounting firm. Worth it if you need income-tax returns or advice beyond the information return.
• A formation-company package. Check whether the pro forma 1120 is included, or only Form 5472, and what proof of submission you receive.

The pro forma 1120 is never priced on its own. It is part of every Form 5472 filing.

• Standard: $149, ready in 5-7 business days
• Express: $199, ready within 3 business days
• Each additional past year: +$99

See the pricing page for everything each plan includes.