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Tax Filing for Non-Resident's US LLC: Form 5472 Filing Guide

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The previous article shared How to Fill Out Form 1120. Now, let’s continue with filling out Form 5472, primarily based on the Instructions for Form 5472 released by the IRS.

To reiterate, Form 5472 is an information return used to report “reportable transactions” between foreign persons and U.S. companies to the IRS. The key point here is “reportable transactions.” So, who is a related party? In common cases, it mainly refers to the foreign owner of this U.S. company. For other situations, please refer to the official instructions.

Therefore, the first step in Form 5472 is to clearly fill in the company information, owner information, and related party information. This typically includes:

Next, clearly fill in the reportable transaction information that occurred with the related party. So, which transactions need to be reported? They usually include:

Filling Instructions

Reference for filling the first page:

Explanations for some items:

Part I

This section mainly fills in basic company information.

At red dot 1, fill in the company’s tax year. If it’s the company’s first year of existence, the period is from the company’s formation date to December 31 of that year; otherwise, it’s from January 1 to December 31 of the year.

At red dot 6 (i.e., Part I 1c), fill in the company’s total assets. If item D on Form 1120 is not left blank, the total assets figure here should match the value in item D of Form 1120.

At red dots 7 and 8 (i.e., Part I 1d, 1e), fill in the company’s business and its code. They can be looked up on NAICS Association.

At red dot 9 (i.e., Part I 1f), fill in the sum of transaction amounts between the company and the current related party. This should equal the total sum of transaction amounts from Part IV + Part V + Part VI later. In 2025, my company had not generated any monetary or non-monetary income or expenses, only the costs of company formation needed to be reported.

At red dot 11 (i.e., Part I 1h), fill in the sum of transaction amounts between the company and all related parties.

Note: The IRS requires a separate Form 5472 for each related party associated with the company. If the company has multiple related parties, then Part I 1h should equal the sum of the Part I 1f values from all related parties’ Form 5472s.

At red dot 10 (i.e., Part I 1g), fill in the number of Form 5472s being filed for the year. For my company, the only related party is myself, so I fill in 1.

At red dot 12 (i.e., Part I 1j), check this box if it is the company’s first year filing Form 5472.

At red dot 13 (i.e., Part I 1k), fill in 0 or leave it blank if there is no cost sharing arrangement (Part VIII).

At red dot 16 (i.e., Part I 1n), literally refers to the country where the company files its tax return as a resident. After discussion with my CPA, since my SMLLC is a tax pass-through entity to me as an individual, and I file my personal tax return as a resident in China, so I fill in China here.

At red dot 17 (i.e., Part I 1o), literally refers to the country where the company conducts its principal business activities. Although my company’s business targets global users, I personally mainly work on the company’s business operations in China, so I fill in China here.

Part II

This section mainly fills in basic shareholder information.

At red dot 21 (i.e., Part II 4b(1)), the shareholder’s SSN or ITIN. If none, it can be left blank directly. My CPA suggested I could write FOREIGN-US for clarity.

At red dot 22 (i.e., Part II 4b(2)), a company-defined reference number used to identify the shareholder. It can be customized by the company, as long as it follows IRS rules (combination of letters and numbers, within 50 characters). Note that this custom reference number for the shareholder must remain consistent in subsequent years.

I personally use the name concatenated with the company EIN, removing special characters, with all letters capitalized.

At red dot 23 (i.e., Part II 4b(3)), the shareholder’s foreign taxpayer identification number. For me, this is the Chinese taxpayer identification number, i.e., the ID card number.

Reference for filling the second page:

Explanations for some items:

Part III

This section mainly fills in related party information. Part III of one Form 5472 can only contain information for one related party.

At red dot 8 (i.e., Part III 8e), select the type of related party. Selecting “25% foreign shareholder” indicates the related party is a 25% foreign shareholder of the company.

Part IV

Monetary transactions between the related party and the company. If none, fill all with 0 or leave blank.

Part V

At red dot 11, check this box if the related party engaged in the specific transactions listed in this part (e.g., contributions, distributions) with the company. Additionally, a separate statement detailing the transactions must be attached to the back of Form 5472.

The costs of company formation need to be reported in this part. There is no fixed format required for the attached separate statement; you can have AI write it, for example:

Part VI

Non-monetary transactions between the related party and the company. If none, do not check the box.

Reference for filling the third page:

Explanations for some items:

Part VII

This section mainly provides additional information. Typically, you can check the boxes as shown in the image.

Part VIII

Regarding cost sharing agreements, most likely there are none (corresponding to Part I 1k). You can leave it blank, or fill it as shown in the image.

Part IX

Regarding BEAT, most likely there is none. You can leave it blank, or fill it as shown in the image.

Submission

Finally, merge the completed Form 1120, Form 5472, and explanatory attachments into a single PDF in order, and fax it to +1 855-887-7737.

Note: It’s best to keep the fax transmission receipt permanently, along with other company-related documents.

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