Which U.S. international filings does your business need?

Usually, yes. Income is not the trigger — transactions with the foreign owner are. Funding the LLC, paying its expenses personally, taking money out, and even paying the formation fees are all reportable for a foreign-owned disregarded LLC. An LLC with a bank balance and no revenue almost always has at least one reportable transaction in the year it was formed.

For a foreign-owned disregarded LLC — yes. The regulations specifically add contributions and distributions to the reportable list for these entities, and an owner paying a company bill from a personal account is treated as a contribution (and a reimbursement as a distribution). For a U.S. corporation the categories are narrower, which is one reason the checker asks about entity type before it asks about transactions.

Direction of ownership. Form 5472 is filed by a U.S. company about its foreign owners (inbound). Form 5471 generally reports certain U.S. persons’ relationships with foreign corporations, including qualifying ownership and control (outbound). Certain U.S. officers and directors may also have filing obligations when specified stock acquisitions occur. A U.S. startup with a foreign founder and a foreign subsidiary can need both forms.

Probably — but on which form depends on how the subsidiary is classified for U.S. tax. A foreign corporation the company controls goes on Form 5471. A foreign entity that is disregarded (or a branch) goes on Form 8858. A foreign partnership goes on Form 8865. A foreign LLC can be any of the three, depending on its owners’ liability and any Form 8832 election. Transfers of cash or IP into a foreign corporation can add Form 926. Ownership below 10% often needs no form at all — but attribution rules can change that.

If it has foreign financial accounts whose combined peak value exceeded $10,000 during the calendar year — yes, in its own name. The FBAR rules treat a U.S. LLC as a U.S. person even when it is disregarded for income tax, so the LLC’s FBAR is separate from any FBAR its owner files. It goes to FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System, not to the IRS, and is due April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15.

Yes. A U.S. company that owns more than 50% of a foreign corporation or partnership has a “financial interest” in that entity’s accounts for FBAR purposes and reports them on its own FBAR. Officers who can sign on those accounts may also have a personal FBAR filing. This is one of the most commonly missed filings for startups with an engineering subsidiary abroad.

The penalty for failing to file a complete and timely Form 5472 generally starts at $25,000. If the failure continues for more than 90 days after the IRS notifies the company, additional penalties of $25,000 may apply for each subsequent 30-day period or part of a period. There is no statutory maximum. It applies even when the company owes no tax and had no income. Penalty relief may be available when the taxpayer can establish reasonable cause. Relief is not automatic and depends on the facts. Filing late with a reasonable-cause statement is far better than not filing.