If you are not a US person and you own a US LLC, there is a filing requirement that catches people out every year. It applies even when the company made no money, and the penalty for missing it is the largest of any common small-business filing.

The rule

A foreign-owned US disregarded entity — in practice, a single-member LLC whose member is a non-US person — is treated as a separate domestic corporation for the purposes of section 6038A. That treatment exists for one purpose: to create a reporting obligation.

If the entity had any reportable transaction with a foreign or domestic related party during the year, it must file.

The same requirement catches 25%-foreign-owned US corporations and foreign corporations engaged in a US trade or business, but the single-member LLC is the case most people encounter.

What "reportable transaction" actually covers

This is where owners go wrong. A reportable transaction is not limited to sales and purchases. It includes capital contributions from the owner to the LLC, and distributions from the LLC to the owner.

So the sequence that looks like nothing happened —

1. You form the LLC
2. You wire in $2,000 to open the bank account
3. The company trades nothing all year

— is a reportable transaction. You contributed capital. The filing obligation is live.

A genuinely zero-activity year, where no money moved in either direction between you and the entity, is the narrow exception. It is narrower than most owners assume.

What you actually file

Not a normal corporate tax return. A pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached.

The IRS instructions are explicit about how little of the 1120 gets completed:

"The only information required to be completed on Form 1120 is the name and address of the foreign-owned U.S. DE and items B and E on the first page."

Write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top of the Form 1120.

Where it goes — not the normal address

This trips people who follow standard 1120 instructions. Disregarded entities have a dedicated filing channel:

Method	Address
Fax	855-887-7737 (scan at 300 DPI or higher)
Mail	Internal Revenue Service, 1973 Rulon White Blvd, M/S 6112, Attn: PIN Unit, Ogden, UT 84201

Sending it to the ordinary Form 1120 address is a common and costly mistake.

The deadline

The due date of the income tax return, including extensions:

• 15 April for a calendar-year entity
• Extendable six months to 15 October by filing Form 7004

File the extension if there is any doubt. It is free and it moves the deadline.

The penalty

This is the part to take seriously.

• $25,000 for each failure to file a complete and correct Form 5472 by the due date
• Plus an additional $25,000 for each 30-day period, or part of a period, after a 90-day IRS notification period expires
• There is no maximum.

An unfiled 5472 that goes unnoticed for a year does not cost $25,000. It compounds every thirty days once the IRS has notified you and the clock runs.

There is also no revenue test. A company that earned nothing and a company that earned millions face the same $25,000 starting penalty.

You will need an EIN

The LLC needs its own Employer Identification Number to file. If you do not have one, see our guide on how to get a US EIN in 2026 — as an international applicant you can get one by phone or fax without an SSN or ITIN, and it is free.

What this filing is not

It is not a tax payment. A single-member LLC owned by a non-resident with no US-source effectively connected income generally owes no US federal income tax on that basis alone. The 5472 is an information return — the IRS wants visibility of related-party transactions, not money.

That distinction matters because it is the reason people skip it. There is nothing to pay, so it feels like there is nothing to do.