If you own a US single-member LLC as a non-resident, you must file Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120 every single year — even if the LLC did $0 of business, held no bank account, and earned nothing. The IRS treats your "disregarded" LLC as a corporation for this one reporting purpose, and the penalty for filing late, incompletely, or not at all is $25,000 per form. This is the filing foreign founders miss most often, because nothing about owing zero income tax warns you it exists.
Who files: any US LLC that is 100% foreign-owned and treated as a disregarded entity (the default for a single-member LLC).
What you file: Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120 — the 1120 acts only as a cover page, not an income-tax return.
When: by April 15, with a six-month extension available via Form 7004.
Zero activity is not an exemption — a dormant foreign-owned LLC still files, and even your own capital contributions count as reportable transactions.
Penalty: $25,000 per Form 5472 for late, incomplete, or missing filing — assessed automatically, with more stacking if you ignore IRS notices.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Tax rules change; confirm current guidance with the IRS or a qualified advisor before you file. As of June 2026, the rules below reflect the IRS Instructions for Form 5472 (Rev. December 2024).
Who actually has to file Form 5472?
Any US LLC that is wholly owned by a foreign person and treated as a disregarded entity has to file.
Since the 2017 regulations, the IRS treats a foreign-owned US disregarded entity as a domestic corporation for the limited purpose of the reporting rules under section 6038A. In plain terms: your single-member Wyoming or Delaware LLC, which is invisible for income tax, becomes visible for this one information return. The Instructions for Form 5472 state the requirement directly — a foreign-owned US DE must file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached.
"Foreign person" here means a non-resident owner — an individual, company, or trust that isn't a US person. If that describes you and you own 100% of a US LLC that hasn't elected corporation treatment, this filing is yours.
Why do I file if my LLC is "disregarded" and owes no tax?
Because "disregarded for income tax" and "exempt from filing" are two completely different things.
A single-member LLC is a disregarded entity, so it pays no federal income tax of its own — the income flows to you, the owner. Founders read that as "no tax, no filing" and move on. But the 5472 isn't an income-tax return; it's an information return that reports transactions between your LLC and you (its foreign owner) and any related parties. The IRS wants visibility into money moving between a US entity and its foreign owner, regardless of whether any tax is due.
The trap is that "reportable transactions" are broad — the money you contribute to start or fund the LLC, and any money you take back out, both count. So even a brand-new LLC that never invoiced a client has a reportable transaction the moment you wire in your own startup capital. There is no de minimis floor that lets a dormant entity off the hook.
What exactly is a pro forma 1120, and how is it different from a real 1120?
A pro forma 1120 is a near-empty Form 1120 used purely as a cover sheet to carry your Form 5472 — not a calculation of corporate tax.
A normal Form 1120 is the US corporate income-tax return, where a C-Corp reports revenue, deductions, and the 21% federal tax it owes. Your disregarded LLC isn't a C-Corp and doesn't owe that tax, so you don't complete the income and deduction sections. Per the About Form 5472 guidance, you write the entity's name, address, and EIN on the 1120, mark it as a foreign-owned US DE, attach the 5472, and leave the tax math blank.
| Aspect | Pro forma 1120 (your foreign-owned LLC) | Standard 1120 (C-Corp) |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Cover page to carry Form 5472 | Report corporate income and tax |
| Income/deduction lines | Left blank | Fully completed |
| Tax owed on it | None (LLC is disregarded) | 21% federal on profits |
| Can it be e-filed? | No — fax or mail only | Yes |
| Penalty for missing it | $25,000 (via the attached 5472) | Late-filing and late-payment penalties |
When is Form 5472 due, and how do I actually file it?
It's due April 15, and — unlike most modern IRS forms — you cannot e-file it.
A foreign-owned US disregarded entity files the pro forma 1120 with Form 5472 attached by the regular 1120 due date. You can buy six more months by filing Form 7004 by that same original due date, writing "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top. The catch that surprises people: the IRS does not let a foreign-owned DE submit this package electronically — you fax or mail it to the dedicated address in the 5472 instructions.
Due date: April 15 (the standard 1120 deadline).
Extension: file Form 7004 by April 15 for an automatic six-month extension to October 15.
Method: fax or mail only — Form 5472 for a foreign-owned DE cannot be e-filed.
Where: the dedicated fax number / mailing address listed in the IRS Instructions for Form 5472 under "Foreign-owned U.S. DEs."
What does the $25,000 penalty actually cost if I miss it?
The base penalty is $25,000 per Form 5472, and it can stack well beyond that if you ignore the IRS.
Per the IRS, a $25,000 penalty applies to any reporting entity that fails to file Form 5472 on time and in the prescribed manner — and a substantially incomplete form counts as a failure to file. It's assessed more or less automatically, which is why so many founders only learn about the form when the notice arrives. If the failure continues for more than 90 days after the IRS notifies you, an additional $25,000 applies for each 30-day period (or part of one) that it drags on.
A $100 Wyoming LLC filing fee and a forgotten form can turn into a $25,000 bill — the penalty dwarfs the entire cost of running the company. For context, a Wyoming LLC's all-in annual upkeep runs roughly $299–$399; the 5472 penalty is over sixty times that. This is the single most expensive mistake a foreign-owned LLC owner can make, and it's entirely avoidable.
For the broader picture of how a foreign-owned LLC is structured and taxed, see What a foreign-owned US LLC actually means.
How does StableCorp keep you on the right side of Form 5472?
StableCorp forms the entity, gets the EIN, opens the US bank account, and runs the compliance — so the 5472 doesn't fall through the cracks in April.
The non-obvious edge isn't the form itself; plenty of providers can mail a 5472. It's that the data the form reports — the money moving between you and your LLC — is exactly the flow StableCorp already handles when a US client pays you in USDC and you off-ramp to your home currency. Because those transfers settle on a compliant, purpose-code-based rail with a real paper trail, the reportable transactions your 5472 has to disclose are already documented rather than reconstructed from scattered wallet history at filing time.
For Indian owners, that off-ramp runs against supported RBI purpose codes (P0802, P1004, P1005, P1006, P1007, P1009; others on request) — the compliant solution, not the grey-area direct-wallet path. The clean US-side and home-side trail is the product.
It's also priced to undercut the market. For clients incorporated with StableCorp, off-ramps run 0.5% and on-ramps 1.5%; a direct off-ramp to INR is 1%, and payroll for freelancers is 1% (sometimes volume-negotiated) — versus the market's ~2.9% headline fee plus ~2% hidden FX markup, roughly 5% effective. See pricing for the full breakdown.
Form the LLC, get the EIN, open the bank account, and keep the annual 5472 and pro forma 1120 on the calendar — StableCorp runs the whole flow on one compliant rail. See pricing.
The bottom line
If you're a non-resident who owns a US single-member LLC, Form 5472 plus a pro forma 1120 is mandatory every year — full stop.
Disregarded for income tax does not mean disregarded for filing. Zero activity won't save you, your own startup capital is already a reportable transaction, the package can't be e-filed, and the penalty for getting it wrong is $25,000 per form. Mark April 15 on the calendar, file by mail or fax, keep your owner-to-LLC transfers documented on a compliant rail, and this expensive trap never touches you.
Sources
IRS — Instructions for Form 5472 (Rev. December 2024) — https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i5472
IRS — About Form 5472 — https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-5472
IRS — International information reporting penalties — https://www.irs.gov/payments/international-information-reporting-penalties
IRS — Single-member limited liability companies — https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/single-member-limited-liability-companies