A foreign-owned US company has a short, fixed list of recurring deadlines, and almost all of them cluster around two dates: your state's annual filing and the federal April 15 tax deadline. For most non-resident founders that means a state annual report or franchise tax in the spring, the federal income or information return (Form 1120, with Form 5472 attached if you run a single-member LLC) by April 15, and — if you're a foreign reporting company — a FinCEN beneficial-ownership filing. Miss the wrong one and the smallest penalty in the bunch is $200; the largest is $25,000 per form. Here is the whole year on one page.
Federal income/info return: Form 1120 (C-Corp) or pro forma 1120 + Form 5472 (foreign-owned single-member LLC) is due April 15, with a six-month extension to October 15 via Form 7004.
Delaware C-Corp: annual report + franchise tax due March 1 (minimum franchise tax starts around $400 + $50 report; $200 penalty for late filing).
Delaware LLC: flat $300 alternative-entity tax due June 1 (no annual report).
Wyoming LLC: annual report + license tax ($60 minimum) due the first day of your formation anniversary month.
FinCEN BOI: as of June 2026 only foreign reporting companies must file — re-verify before you rely on this, because the rule is still interim and litigated.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Tax and compliance rules change, and several items below are time-sensitive; confirm current guidance with the IRS, FinCEN, your state's Secretary of State, or a qualified advisor before you file. Dates assume a calendar tax year (ending December 31). As of June 2026, the deadlines reflect current IRS, Delaware, Wyoming, and FinCEN guidance.
What deadlines does a foreign-owned US company actually have?
Three buckets: a state filing, a federal filing, and — for some owners — a FinCEN beneficial-ownership filing.
Unlike a domestic operating business, a non-resident-owned shell or services company usually has no payroll-tax or sales-tax calendar to worry about in its first years. That collapses your obligations down to a handful of dates. The exact dates depend on two things: which state you formed in, and whether you run a C-Corp or a single-member LLC.
The table below is the master calendar. Find your entity type, and the rows that apply to you are your whole year.
| Deadline | Who it applies to | What's due | Typical cost / penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| First day of anniversary month | Wyoming LLC | Annual report + license tax | $60 min; entity dissolved if unfiled |
| March 1 | Delaware C-Corp | Annual report + franchise tax | From ~$400 tax + $50 report; $200 late penalty |
| April 15 | Foreign-owned single-member LLC | Pro forma Form 1120 + Form 5472 | $25,000 per form if missed |
| April 15 | C-Corp | Form 1120 (federal income tax, 21%) | Late-filing + late-payment penalties |
| June 1 | Delaware LLC | Alternative-entity tax | $300 flat; $200 late penalty + 1.5%/mo |
| October 15 | Any entity that extended | Extended 1120 / 5472 (via Form 7004) | Extension is to file, not to pay |
| Within 30 days (foreign cos.) | Foreign reporting company | FinCEN BOI report | ~$591/day civil; criminal exposure |
When is the federal April 15 deadline, and what's actually due?
April 15 is the federal due date for a calendar-year C-Corp's Form 1120 and for a foreign-owned single-member LLC's pro forma 1120 with Form 5472 attached.
Form 1120 is due the 15th day of the fourth month after your tax year ends, which for a December 31 year-end is April 15. A C-Corp uses it to report income and pay the 21% federal corporate income tax. A foreign-owned single-member LLC, which is "disregarded" for income tax, files a near-empty pro forma 1120 purely to carry Form 5472, the information return that discloses transactions between the LLC and its foreign owner.
The single-member LLC version is the one founders miss, because owing zero income tax makes it feel like there's nothing to file — yet the penalty is $25,000 per form, and even wiring in your own startup capital is a reportable transaction. A dormant, never-invoiced LLC still owes this filing. There is no zero-activity exemption.
One quirk that trips people up: the foreign-owned-DE package cannot be e-filed. You fax or mail the pro forma 1120 plus 5472 to the dedicated address in the IRS instructions.
C-Corp: Form 1120, report income, pay 21% federal tax — due April 15.
Foreign-owned single-member LLC: pro forma 1120 + Form 5472, no income tax due but mandatory — due April 15.
Need more time? File Form 7004 by April 15 for an automatic extension to October 15 — but it extends the filing, not the payment.
The 5472 package is fax/mail only; the C-Corp 1120 can be e-filed.
If the 5472 is new to you, read the deep dive on Form 5472 and the $25k penalty before April.
When are Delaware franchise tax and the annual report due?
A Delaware C-Corp owes its annual report and franchise tax by March 1; a Delaware LLC owes a flat $300 alternative-entity tax by June 1 and files no annual report.
For corporations, Delaware requires the annual report and franchise tax to be received by March 1 each year, with a $200 penalty plus interest for filing late. The franchise tax for a small C-Corp typically starts around $400 under the assumed-par-value method, on top of the $50 annual report fee. Corporations owing $5,000 or more pay in quarterly estimated installments.
Delaware LLCs are simpler: no annual report at all, just a flat $300 tax due June 1. The lesson is that "Delaware deadline" means two completely different dates depending on whether you're a C-Corp or an LLC.
All-in, a Delaware C-Corp's yearly upkeep tends to run roughly $800–$1,500 once you add a registered agent and CPA, versus a Wyoming LLC's ~$299–$399. See the full breakdown in what it costs to form and run a US company.
When is the Wyoming LLC annual report due?
A Wyoming LLC's annual report and license tax are due the first day of your formation anniversary month — not a fixed calendar date.
Per the Wyoming Secretary of State, annual reports are due on the first day of the anniversary month of formation. If you filed your LLC on May 15, your report is due May 1 every year after. The license tax is $60 minimum for entities with under $250,000 in Wyoming-located assets, scaling up from there.
Because the date floats to your formation month, it's the deadline most likely to slip — there's no shared "everyone files in March" cue to remind you. Miss it long enough and Wyoming administratively dissolves the LLC.
Do foreign-owned companies still have to file the FinCEN BOI report?
As of June 2026, only foreign reporting companies must file a beneficial-ownership (BOI) report — US-formed entities and US persons are exempt under the current interim rule, but this is the item to re-verify before you act.
Under the March 2025 FinCEN interim final rule, domestic reporting companies and US persons were exempted, narrowing the requirement to entities formed abroad that register to do business in a US state. The rule is still interim, litigation is ongoing, and a final rule is pending — so the safest move is to check fincen.gov/boi directly before each deadline. Civil penalties run around $591 per day, with criminal exposure up to $10,000 and two years.
Practically, a typical Wyoming or Delaware company you form as a non-resident is US-formed, so under today's rule it does not file BOI — but because this is the fastest-changing item on the calendar, treat it as "verify," not "settled." Date your decision and recheck annually.
What about the home-country side of the calendar?
Your US filings are only half the picture — money you actually take home is taxed and reported where you live, on your home country's calendar.
For an Indian founder, for example, foreign income flows into your Indian return, and India relieves double taxation through a DTAA foreign tax credit claimed via Form 67. If any of your inflow touches crypto, India layers on a flat 30% tax on virtual digital assets plus a 1% TDS on transfers — a separate regime from your US obligations entirely.
The point isn't to map every country here; it's that a complete compliance calendar has two columns — US and home — and the dates don't line up. Keep both in one view.
How does StableCorp keep this whole calendar from slipping?
StableCorp forms the entity, gets the EIN, opens the US bank account, and runs the recurring compliance — so the state report, the 1120/5472, and the home-side off-ramp trail all stay on one calendar instead of three.
Here's the non-obvious part most providers skip. The hardest filing to reconstruct in April isn't the form itself — it's the data behind it: every transfer between you and your company, which is exactly what Form 5472 reports. When a US client pays you in USDC and you off-ramp to your home currency through StableCorp, those movements settle on a compliant, purpose-code-based rail (for Indian owners: RBI codes P0802, P1004, P1005, P1006, P1007, P1009, others on request) with a real paper trail. So at filing time, your reportable transactions are already documented — not pieced together from scattered wallet history. That clean trail is the product, and it's the opposite of the grey-area DIY direct-wallet path.
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 company, file the SS-4, open the bank account, and keep the state report, the annual 1120/5472, and a compliant off-ramp trail on one calendar — that's the whole job. See pricing.
The bottom line
A foreign-owned US company's compliance year is short, predictable, and front-loaded into spring.
Pin your state filing (Delaware C-Corp March 1, Delaware LLC June 1, Wyoming LLC your anniversary month), put the federal April 15 deadline for the 1120 or 5472 on the calendar, re-verify FinCEN BOI before you rely on any exemption, and don't forget the home-country column. The dates are few — the penalties for missing them are not. Keep both sides of the ledger in one view and the calendar runs itself.
Sources
IRS — About Form 1120, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return — https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1120
IRS — Instructions for Form 5472 — https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i5472
IRS — About Form 7004 (automatic extension) — https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-7004
Delaware Division of Corporations — Annual Report and Tax Information — https://corp.delaware.gov/frtax/
Wyoming Secretary of State — Annual Report — https://wyobiz.wyo.gov/Business/AnnualReport.aspx
FinCEN — Beneficial Ownership Information — https://www.fincen.gov/boi