When Is Your Final Form 5472 Due?

If you own a US LLC from abroad, you probably know Form 5472 is due every year with a pro forma Form 1120. What most owners do not know is that the year you close the LLC can have a different deadline, and it can arrive months before the usual April 15.

When Is the Final Form 5472 Due After You Dissolve?

The Form 5472 instructions say a foreign-owned single-member LLC files its pro forma Form 1120, with Form 5472 attached, by the due date of that Form 1120. The Form 1120 instructions then say: "A corporation that has dissolved must generally file by the 15th day of the 4th month after the date it dissolved."

Put those together and the final filing for an LLC that closes mid-year is generally due about three and a half months after the dissolution, not on the following April 15.

The penalty for filing Form 5472 late is $25,000. When two deadlines are possible, the earlier one is the one to plan around.

Why Isn't It Just April 15?

Because for this one form, the IRS treats your LLC as a corporation. A foreign-owned disregarded LLC has no income tax return of its own, but since 2017 it is classified as a corporation for the reporting rules behind Form 5472. Its tax year follows its owner's US tax year, or the calendar year if the owner has none.

Some advisors read that to mean the final year still runs to December 31. The instructions do not settle it in so many words, so we do not bet a $25,000 penalty on the later reading. File by the earlier date, or extend by it.

Do You Have to File a Final Form 5472 at All?

Almost certainly, yes. Form 5472 is required when the LLC had a reportable transaction with a related party, and for a foreign-owned LLC that includes the items in Part V: amounts paid or received in connection with the formation, dissolution, acquisition, and disposition of the entity, including contributions to and distributions from it.

In the year you close, you usually paid the state's dissolution fee, the registered agent, or a filing service with your own money (a contribution), and you took whatever was left in the account (a distribution). Either one is enough.

How Do You Extend the Deadline?

With Form 7004, filed by the original due date. It gives an automatic extension, generally 6 months. For a foreign-owned LLC, the instructions add three specifics:

• Enter the code for Form 1120 on line 1, since the 5472 rides on a pro forma 1120
• Write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top
• Fax or mail it to the same dedicated IRS number and address used for the 5472 itself, not the regular Form 7004 address

Form 7004 also asks why the tax year is short. Closing the company is that reason.

How Do You File the Final One?

On paper only. A foreign-owned LLC cannot file Form 5472 electronically. You send:

• A pro forma Form 1120 with only the LLC's name and address and items B and E completed, "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" written across the top, and the Final return box checked in item E
• Form 5472 attached, plus a statement describing the Part V transactions

The IRS takes it by fax at 855-887-7737 (300 DPI or higher) or by mail to: Internal Revenue Service, 1973 Rulon White Blvd, M/S 6112, Attn: PIN Unit, Ogden, UT 84201. Do not use the regular Form 1120 address.

What Comes After the Final 5472?

Once the final return is in, write to the IRS to close the LLC's EIN account. Our guide on dissolving a US LLC from abroad walks through the full order, and our Form 5472 penalty guide covers what to do if earlier years were never filed.

The Short Version

• Final 5472 is due with a final pro forma Form 1120
• For an LLC that closes mid-year, that is generally the 15th day of the 4th month after dissolving
• Paying to close and emptying the account are both reportable, so you almost always file
• Need time? Form 7004 by the original date, generally 6 more months
• Paper only: fax 855-887-7737 or mail to Ogden, never the regular 1120 address

Our Complete Closure plan ($599 plus state fees) includes the final Form 5472 and the EIN closure.