EIN for Non-ResidentsA verified reference library · Second edition
Catalogue — REF A-1…E-2
REF D-1
Shelf D — OBLIGATIONS
pp. 1–4 · 8 min · Verified 4 Nov 2026

Form 5472 + pro-forma Form 1120

The EIN is a one-time event. This is the obligation that repeats: every year, a wholly foreign-owned single-member LLC reports its transactions with its owner to the IRS — even in a year when nothing was earned.

Verified on November 4, 2026 against the Instructions for Form 5472 (Rev. December 2024) and the Instructions for Form SS-4, cited in full at the foot of this entry.

This entry is a deadline and orientation reference; it is not preparation of anyone's return, and it is not tax advice.

§ 1 —Who is in scope

A domestic disregarded entity wholly owned, directly or indirectly, by one foreign person — in ordinary language, a U.S. single-member LLC with a single foreign owner. For most tax purposes such an LLC is “disregarded”: it files no income-tax return of its own. For the reporting rules of Internal Revenue Code §6038A, however, the regulations treat it as a corporation — and that single, limited reclassification is what creates the filing on this page.1

§ 2 —What is actually filed

Form 5472, the information return, reporting the entity and its foreign owner and the reportable transactions between the entity and its related parties. For a disregarded entity, the instructions' Part V reaches amounts paid or received in connection with the entity's formation, dissolution, acquisition, and disposition, including the owner's contributions to and distributions from the entity. Money the owner put in to start the company is itself a reportable item.

A pro-forma Form 1120 as its carrier. Form 5472 is not filed alone. The instructions require only the entity's name and address and items B and E on the first page of the 1120, with “Foreign-owned U.S. DE” written across the top. It computes no income and no tax.

By fax or mail, not electronically. The instructions direct a foreign-owned disregarded entity to the IRS's dedicated fax number (855-887-7737, as printed in the current instructions) or to the Ogden, Utah address the instructions name. E-filing is not available to this class of filer.

Document — Form 1120, pro-forma headerPlate D-1·1

FOREIGN-OWNED U.S. DE1

U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return — completed only as the Form 5472 instructions require

NameSPECIMEN ENTITY LLC2
BEMPLOYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER — XX-XXXXXXX
EDATE INCORPORATED / FORMED — AS INSTRUCTED3

No income is computed and no tax is figured on the pro-forma return. It carries Form 5472; it is not filed alone.

Specimen — Not an IRS document
Document — Form 5472Plate D-1·2

Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business

Part IREPORTING CORPORATION — THE U.S. ENTITY AND ITS EIN4
Part VFOR A DISREGARDED ENTITY: AMOUNTS PAID OR RECEIVED IN CONNECTION WITH FORMATION, DISSOLUTION, ACQUISITION AND DISPOSITION — INCLUDING OWNER CONTRIBUTIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS5
Specimen — Not an IRS document

§ 3 —The dates

ItemDateMechanism
Regular due dateApril 15The due date (without extension) of the pro-forma Form 1120: the 15th day of the 4th month after the tax year ends
Extension requestBy April 15Form 7004, filed by the regular due date
Extended due dateOctober 15Six months from the regular due date, on a timely Form 7004

An entity on a non-calendar tax year uses the same rule — the 15th day of the 4th month after its year ends — rather than the calendar dates above. When a due date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the IRS's general timely-filing rules apply.

§ 4 —The penalty, as the IRS states it

The Instructions for Form 5472 state that a penalty of $25,000 will be assessed on any reporting corporation that fails to file Form 5472 when due and in the manner prescribed, and that filing a substantially incomplete Form 5472 constitutes a failure to file.1 If the failure continues more than 90 days after the IRS notifies the filer, an additional $25,000 applies for each related party for each 30-day period (or part of one) the failure continues.

Two consequences follow that this library will state as plainly as the source does. First, the penalty is not tied to tax owed: a zero-income year is not an exemption, because Form 5472 is an information return, not a tax. Second, “we filed something” is not the standard — a substantially incomplete filing is treated as no filing.

§ 5 —What this entry is not

It is not a preparation guide for your return, and the library does not prepare, review for filing, or file Form 5472 or Form 1120 for anyone. Whether a specific entity had reportable transactions in a specific year, and how its facts map to the form's parts, are questions for the entity's own qualified tax professional. What the library does — orientation, dates, sources, and records discipline through the year — is the ground that professional will thank you for keeping.

General information only, not tax advice. Where this page and an IRS source differ, the IRS source governs.

§Sources

  1. IRS, Instructions for Form 5472 (Rev. December 2024), via “About Form 5472” — https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-5472 — consulted 2026-11-04.
  2. IRS, Instructions for Form SS-4 (Rev. December 2025) — https://www.irs.gov/instructions/iss4 — consulted 2026-11-04.