Form 5472 for Foreign-Owned LLCs in 2026: Who Files, When and the Penalty

Short answer: A single-member LLC owned by a non-US person files Form 5472 every year, attached to a pro forma Form 1120. For a calendar-year company it is due April 15, or October 15 with an extension. The IRS penalty is $25,000 for each form not filed when due. Two services we checked price this filing: Firstbase at $899 a year for the filing alone, and doola at $1,999 a year plus state fees for a plan that also covers formation.

Our analysis: We read the IRS instructions for Form 5472 and the vendor pages that sell the filing, all on 12 October 2026. The IRS sets the rules and the deadline. The vendors set the price, and what each plan includes decides which one fits you.

Who has to file Form 5472?

The IRS defines a "reporting corporation" to include a 25% foreign-owned U.S. corporation and a foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity. A disregarded entity is an LLC with one owner that has not elected to be taxed as a corporation. Its income is reported on the owner's return rather than by the company.

The IRS still requires a foreign-owned disregarded entity to file a pro forma Form 1120, with Form 5472 attached. Form 5472 is an information return. It reports transactions between the company and its foreign owner or related parties, under sections 6038A and 6038C of the Internal Revenue Code. The rule turns on who owns the company, not on how much it earned.

The definition we read covers a company wholly owned by a foreign person. A multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership falls outside it, so check your tax classification before you assume the filing applies to you.

When is it due?

The pro forma Form 1120 and the attached Form 5472 are due by the same date as that return, including extensions. For a corporation with a calendar tax year, the IRS puts the due date on the 15th day of the fourth month after the year ends, which is April 15. If that day falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the next business day counts.

An extension requires action on your side. File Form 7004 by the regular due date. The IRS describes Form 7004 as an automatic six-month extension, so a timely filing moves the deadline to October 15.

If you extended a 2025 return, the last day is October 15, 2026.

What does missing it cost?

The IRS penalty is $25,000 for each reporting corporation that fails to file Form 5472 when due and in the prescribed manner. If the failure continues for more than 90 days after the IRS notifies you, a second $25,000 applies. After that 90-day window, the penalty repeats for each 30-day period, or part of one, that the failure continues. It applies for each related party. The IRS instructions set no cap.

Two other things count as failures. Missing the records required by Regulations section 1.6038A-3 triggers the same penalty. A substantially incomplete Form 5472 also counts as a failure to file, so a half-finished form does not protect you.

The penalty attaches to a missed or incomplete filing, not to tax owed. A company that owes no tax can still be penalized.

Who files it, and what does it cost?

We checked five sellers. Only two tie Form 5472 to a plan: Firstbase on its package page, and doola in its own guide. doola and Bizee quote their plans before state fees.

If you want the whole stack in one plan, doola comes first. Its Tax and Compliance plan covers formation, an EIN, a registered agent and federal and state tax filing for $1,999 a year before state fees. Synced bookkeeping is in Business-in-a-Box at $2,999 a year plus state fees, $1,000 more than Tax and Compliance. Doola's pricing page does not name Form 5472, so ask doola in writing which forms this plan covers before you pay.

If you already have an LLC and an EIN, and need only the filing, Firstbase's $899 package is the lowest price we found that names Form 5472. It covers the forms, the pro forma 1120 and a six-month extension. It leaves out a registered agent, and catch-up bookkeeping costs extra. It is $1,100 a year less than doola's plan, and it covers a narrower job.

If you need formation only, Stripe Atlas, ZenBusiness and Bizee do not name Form 5472 on the pricing pages we read. Buy the filing separately, and ask the provider to confirm in writing that it files Form 5472. Firstbase's tax package for C-corporations and multi-member LLCs costs $1,799 per package, a different product from the $899 filing package.

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Gotchas before you pay

• doola's prices exclude state fees, which vary by state and are paid to the state through doola on top of the plan price.
• Firstbase's package page still shows 2025 deadline dates. Confirm the current terms and the extension in writing before you buy.
• doola's guide was last updated in October 2025, and its deadlines are for 2025 filings. Use the IRS dates in this article.
• Keep the records. The records penalty applies even when the form itself is filed.
• The extension has to be filed on time. A late Form 7004 does not extend the deadline.

Related reads before you file

For the bank account the company will use, compare Mercury vs Relay and read the Relay review. For the bookkeeping tool, the cheapest accounting software for a small business ranks the options. The QuickBooks Online, Xero and FreshBooks pricing breakdowns cover each tool's costs, and QuickBooks vs Xero and QuickBooks vs FreshBooks compare them head to head.

Frequently asked questions

Who has to file Form 5472?

A foreign-owned single-member LLC taxed as a disregarded entity files a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached. A 25% foreign-owned U.S. corporation files it too. The definition we read does not cover a multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership.

When is Form 5472 due?

For a calendar-year company, April 15 of the following year. A timely Form 7004 moves the deadline to October 15. If the due date falls on a weekend or holiday, the next business day counts.

How much is the penalty for not filing Form 5472?

It is $25,000 for each form not filed when due. If the failure continues more than 90 days after an IRS notice, a second penalty applies, and further amounts follow for each 30-day period the failure continues. The IRS instructions set no cap.

Does the penalty depend on tax owed?

No. The penalty attaches to a missed or incomplete filing, so an LLC that owes no tax can still face it.

Which services file Form 5472 for me?

Firstbase names the filing in its $899-a-year package. doola's guide says its Tax and Compliance plan files Form 5472, and that plan costs $1,999 a year plus state fees. Stripe Atlas, ZenBusiness and Bizee do not name the filing on the pricing pages we read, so ask before you buy.

How we checked this

We read these pages on 12 October 2026: the IRS instructions for Form 5472 (revision 12/2024), the IRS instructions for Form 1120, the IRS Form 7004 page, the doola pricing page and doola's Form 5472 guide, the Firstbase tax software page and pricing page, the Stripe Atlas page, the ZenBusiness pricing page and the Bizee pricing page. For each seller we recorded the plan name, the price, the billing basis and whether the plan names Form 5472. Search volume for "form 5472" is 2,700 a month in the US, an Ahrefs estimate. The $1,100 gap, the $1,000 step and the October dates are our arithmetic.

Cite this: Finpresso, "Form 5472 for Foreign-Owned LLCs in 2026: Who Files, When and the Penalty", October 2026.

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This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Nor is it tax advice. Confirm your filing duties with a tax professional and with the IRS, and confirm current prices and terms with each provider before you pay.

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