What is Form 5472?
A comprehensive guide to IRS Form 5472 — the information return required for foreign-owned U.S. corporations and disregarded entities.
Overview
IRS Form 5472, officially titled “Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business,” is an informational tax form that the IRS requires certain entities to file annually. The purpose of this form is to report transactions between a reporting corporation and its related foreign parties.
For foreign-owned single-member LLCs classified as disregarded entities, Form 5472 must be filed along with a pro forma Form 1120. This requirement was introduced by Treasury Regulations effective January 1, 2017.
Who Must File Form 5472?
- 25% foreign-owned U.S. corporations — Any domestic corporation with at least one direct or indirect 25% foreign shareholder must file.
- Foreign-owned disregarded entities — Single-member LLCs owned by a foreign person that are classified as disregarded entities for tax purposes.
- Foreign corporations — Foreign corporations engaged in a U.S. trade or business that have reportable transactions with related parties.
What Information is Required?
Form 5472 consists of several parts that collect information about the reporting corporation, its foreign shareholders, related parties, and monetary/non-monetary transactions:
Key Deadlines
Form 5472 follows the same filing deadlines as the corporate income tax return. For more details, see our filing deadlines guide.
- April 15th — Due date for calendar-year filers
- March 15th — Due date for S-Corporation filers
- October 15th — Extended deadline with Form 7004
Penalties for Non-Compliance
The IRS imposes significant penalties for failure to file Form 5472 or for filing an incomplete or inaccurate form. The base penalty is $25,000 per form per year. Learn more in our penalties guide.
How to File
Our free filing tool walks you through each section of Form 5472 with plain-language explanations. The guided wizard generates IRS-ready PDFs including Form 5472, Pro Forma 1120, and a Federal Supporting Statement — all in under 20 minutes.
You can also use our free business code lookup tool to find the correct NAICS code for your business activity, and the EIN formatter to verify your EIN format.