Form 5472: what it is, who it applies to, and what happens if it is missed
Francis Webb, Founder, 1 Day EIN LLC
Form 5472 is an information return — it reports, it does not tax. It exists so the IRS can see the money that moves between a US company and the foreign people connected to it. For a foreign-owned single-member LLC it is usually the only federal return in the year, it cannot be e-filed, and the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000.
That combination — obscure, paper-only, five-figure penalty — is why this form supports a small industry of fear-based marketing. This page is the version without the fear: what the IRS's own instructions say, who the filing actually applies to, and the one distinction most sales pages skip because it costs them customers.
Whether your LLC has to file depends on its ownership and on the transactions it had during the year. That sentence is the whole test, and both halves matter. Everything below unpacks it.
The ownership half: which companies are in scope
Two populations file Form 5472, per the IRS instructions (read 16 September 2026):
1. A US LLC with one foreign owner, taxed as a disregarded entity. This is most of our customers. Since 2017 such an LLC is treated as a domestic corporation for reporting purposes only, and where a filing is due it takes a specific, slightly strange shape: a pro-forma Form 1120 — a cover page, not a real corporate tax return — with Form 5472 attached, sent on paper to the IRS in Ogden, Utah (or by fax). The instructions are explicit that this filing cannot be made electronically.
2. A US corporation — or an LLC that elected corporate treatment — that is 25% or more foreign-owned. That one files a real Form 1120 with the 5472 attached and can e-file.
And the population that is out of scope, which matters just as much: a multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership does not file Form 5472. It files Form 1065, a different return with different schedules. If your LLC has two or more members and no corporate election, a 5472 filing is the wrong product — from us or from anyone. Any provider that quotes you for a 5472 without first asking how many members your LLC has is quoting before qualifying.
The transactions half: what "reportable" means
For a foreign-owned disregarded entity the definition is broad. Beyond the ordinary categories — sales, rents, interest, payments for services — the instructions expressly include "amounts paid or received in connection with the formation, dissolution, acquisition, and disposition of the entity, including contributions to, and distributions from, the entity."
Read that against a first year of business: somebody paid the state filing fee. Somebody put money into the company account, or paid a company cost personally. Each of those is money moving between the LLC and its owner — the exact thing the form reports.
So the honest statement of scope has two sides. A year with genuinely no reportable transaction — nothing in, nothing out, nothing between the LLC and its owner or any related party — has no 5472 to file; the IRS's own exceptions list starts with exactly that case. But a first year in which the company was formed, funded, or had its costs paid by its owner is not that year. The nil case is real. It is also rare, and asserting it for your own company is a judgment about your facts that belongs with a tax professional, not with a formation company's sales page — including this one.
The penalty, from the instructions
The number everyone quotes is real and worth quoting exactly. Per the IRS instructions: "A penalty of $25,000 will be assessed on any reporting corporation that fails to file Form 5472 when due." And it compounds: after the IRS notifies the failure and 90 days pass, an additional $25,000 applies for each 30-day period the failure continues. There is no stated ceiling.
The deadline for a calendar-year LLC is 15 April for the previous year, extendable to 15 October on Form 7004. The pro-forma 1120 route is paper-only, to a dedicated Ogden address.
The asymmetry is the whole economics of this filing: preparing it costs a few hundred dollars anywhere in the market; missing it starts at $25,000. Against that spread, who prepares it matters much less than that it gets done — which is also the honest argument against overpaying for it.
What the filing costs across the market
On the published figures read for our comparison guide on 8 September 2026: we prepare and file Form 5472 with the pro-forma 1120 for $200 a year; Firstbase publishes $899 for its named equivalent; Clemta's cheapest plan including the filing is $1,068 a year; doola's is $1,999 a year. Northwest, LegalZoom and Stripe Atlas do not offer the filing at all — with them, this line means finding an accountant separately.
One structural note that flatters our competitors: doola's and Clemta's subscriptions bundle bookkeeping, which we do not offer at any price. If you want books and filing in one bill, theirs is the right shape and ours is not. If you want only the filing, the comparison is $200 against $899 — the two prices published as standalone, nameable products.
What we need from you when the filing falls due is two totals for the tax year: money paid from the LLC to you, and money paid from you to the LLC. We prepare and file; we do not invent your figures.
If the filing applies to your LLC this year: Form 5472 with the pro-forma 1120, prepared and filed, is $200 — details at /irs-filing — or it is included in the $350 Compliance Plan along with the registered agent, US business address and state annual report. Both prices are on /pricing. If your LLC has more than one member, neither product is right for you, and we would rather tell you that here than after you have paid.
This page is general information about a federal filing, not tax advice. Whether and how these rules apply to your company depends on your facts — confirm them with a tax professional. The IRS instructions linked above were read 16 September 2026; competitor figures 8 September 2026. Next quarterly re-check: 1 December 2026.