Delaware LLC Form 5472 Example (2026)

What is Form 5472 for a Delaware LLC, in one paragraph?

Form 5472 is an IRS information return that a US business uses to report transactions with its foreign owner or other related foreign parties. For a non-resident, the version that matters is the one tied to a single-member Delaware LLC treated as a disregarded entity. A disregarded LLC files no income tax return of its own, so the IRS layers Form 5472 on top of a stripped-down Form 1120 to capture the money flowing between you and your company.

It exists because the United States wants visibility into related-party dealings that a foreign owner could otherwise keep invisible. The form does not calculate tax. It records facts: how much you put in, how much you took out, and any loans or payments between you and the LLC. That is the whole job of the form, and understanding that keeps the rest of this example simple. For the broader obligation, see our Form 5472 for Delaware LLCs page, and for where it sits among your other filings, our Delaware LLC taxes overview.

Who exactly has to file the Delaware LLC Form 5472 example?

The trigger is specific. You file Form 5472 if your Delaware LLC is a single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity for US tax purposes, and a foreign person owns at least 25% of it, directly or indirectly. For most non-resident founders with one owner and no election to be taxed as a corporation, all three conditions are met, so the form applies. This is the standard setup described on our Delaware LLC for non-residents guide.

A few cases sit outside the worked example here. A multi-member LLC files a partnership return instead and handles foreign owners through that return, not a standalone 5472 on a pro forma 1120. An LLC that has elected to be taxed as a corporation, or a true Delaware C-Corp, files a real Form 1120 and may still attach Form 5472, but the mechanics differ. This page covers the most common non-resident situation: one foreign owner, one disregarded LLC.

What counts as a reportable transaction in the example?

This is the part owners most often get wrong, so it is worth slowing down. A reportable transaction is value moving between the LLC and a related party, which for a single foreign owner means value moving between you and your own company. It is not a record of your sales to customers. Selling a product to an unrelated US buyer is ordinary business income that lives in your books, but it is not a transaction with the owner and does not land on a Form 5472 line.

The transactions that do count for a typical non-resident owner are narrow and predictable:

• Capital contributions. Money you transfer into the LLC to fund it, whether you call it funding, an injection, or owner capital.
• Distributions. Money the LLC pays back out to you, the owner, from its balance.
• Loans either direction. Amounts you lend to the LLC, or the LLC lends to you, and any interest on them.
• Expenses you pay on the LLC's behalf. Formation fees, software, or supplier payments you personally cover before the company bank account exists are commonly treated as reportable contributions.

The reason a brand-new, lightly used LLC still usually files is right there in that last point: the formation fees and your first capital injection are almost always reportable transactions, so the form is triggered in year one even if you never made a sale.

What does the worked Delaware LLC Form 5472 example look like?

Picture a non-resident owner, based abroad, who formed a Delaware LLC to run a small software business. Over the LLC's first calendar year the money between owner and company moved like this, and everything else (sales to customers, server bills paid from the company account) stayed inside the LLC's own books rather than on the 5472:

On Form 5472, the contributions side totals $5,997 of value flowing from the owner to the LLC, and the distribution side shows $3,000 flowing from the LLC back to the owner. Those two totals, with the identifying details, are essentially the entire substance of the form for this owner. There is no tax computed, no schedule of sales, and no list of customers. The customer sales sit in the bookkeeping that supports the business, but they never touch a Form 5472 line because they are not transactions with the owner.

It is worth tracing why each figure lands where it does. The $397 formation cost counts because the owner paid it personally before any company bank account existed, which is value the owner provided to the LLC. The $5,000 wire is plain startup capital. The $600of software charged to a personal card is, again, the owner spending personal money for the company's benefit, so it adds to the contributions side. The $3,000 paid back to the owner is the only flow in the other direction. Everything the company earned from selling its product, and everything it spent from its own account once that account existed, stayed inside the LLC and off the form. Keep a simple ledger of these owner-to-company movements through the year and the form fills itself in at year-end.

A small bookkeeping point makes the example easier to reproduce. Because the only amounts that appear on Form 5472 are the owner-to-company and company-to-owner flows, you do not need a full accounting system to get the form right. You need a single running list with three columns: the date, the direction (owner to LLC, or LLC to owner), and the amount. Each personal card charge for the business, each wire in, and each distribution out gets one line. At year-end you total the two directions, and those two totals are the numbers the form wants. Sales income and ordinary company expenses paid from the company account belong in your books for the business itself, but they stay off this list entirely.

How do the parts of Form 5472 map to this example?

The form is organized into parts, and for a disregarded single-member LLC you complete the ones that identify the players and the money. You do not need every part of the form, only the ones that apply to a foreign-owned disregarded entity.

• Reporting corporation details.The LLC's legal name, US address, and EIN. Get the EIN first; see our EIN for a Delaware LLC guide, since the form cannot be filed without it.
• The 25%-or-more foreign owner. Your full legal name, country of residence, and foreign address as the person who owns the LLC.
• The related party. For a single foreign owner this is you again, identified as the party the LLC transacted with.
• The monetary transactions. Where the $5,997 of contributions and the $3,000 distribution from the example are recorded as amounts paid or received between the LLC and you.

Because the figures are simple owner-to-company flows, the completed form for this example is short. The work is in getting the totals right and the identifying details consistent with your formation documents, not in wrestling with complex schedules. The IRS instructions for the form are the authority on each line, so check the current year's version against your totals before filing.

Why is a pro forma Form 1120 attached to the example?

A disregarded LLC has no income tax return of its own, which leaves Form 5472 with nothing to attach to. The IRS solves this by requiring a pro forma Form 1120as a carrier. Pro forma means you fill in only the top identifying block of the 1120: the LLC's name, address, and EIN, and you write Foreign-owned U.S. DE across the top of the page. You leave the income, deductions, and tax computation blank.

In the worked example, that means the 1120 shows the same name, address, and EIN as the 5472, the foreign-owned label across the top, and nothing in the tax math. Form 5472 is then attached to it, and the two travel together as one package. The 1120 here is not a corporate tax return in any real sense; it is the envelope the IRS asks you to put the 5472 in. If your LLC has actually elected corporation tax treatment, that changes, and you would look at our Delaware LLC taxes overview to sort out which return you are really filing.

When is the example due, and how is it filed?

The package is due by the 15th day of the fourth month after the LLC's tax year ends. For a calendar-year LLC, which most non-resident owners run, that is April 15. If you need more time, file Form 7004 before April 15 to get an automatic extension to October 15. The extension moves the filing date for the package; it does not remove the obligation, so the 7004 itself has to be on time.

Filing is not the usual e-file path. The pro forma 1120 with Form 5472 attached goes to a dedicated IRS fax number or mailing address set up for these returns. Whichever route you use, keep the fax confirmation page or the mailing receipt, because that proof of timely filing is your defense if the IRS ever questions whether the form arrived. The table below puts the dates and routes side by side.

What are the common mistakes on this example?

The errors that bite non-resident owners are consistent, and every one of them is avoidable once you know to look for it. Knowing them in advance is the cheapest insurance against a $25,000 problem.

• Assuming a quiet year means no filing. Formation costs and your first capital injection are usually reportable, so a new LLC that never made a sale still typically files.
• Putting customer sales on the form. Sales to unrelated buyers are not owner transactions and do not belong on Form 5472. Only owner-to-company and company-to-owner amounts go there.
• Skipping the pro forma 1120. Form 5472 cannot stand alone for a disregarded LLC. It must be attached to the top-section-only 1120 marked Foreign-owned U.S. DE.
• Filing through normal e-file. This package goes by fax or mail to the dedicated IRS destination, and using the wrong route can mean it is never recorded.
• Mismatched identifying details. If the LLC name, address, or EIN differs from your formation documents, the filing looks inconsistent. Keep everything identical to your formation records.
• Missing the deadline without a 7004. April 15 is firm unless you extended. Calendar it and file Form 7004 early if you need October 15.

What edge cases change the Delaware LLC Form 5472 example?

The worked example above is the common case, but a handful of variations change how it plays out. Each is worth a sentence so you can spot whether you are actually in the standard scenario.

• Two or more owners. A multi-member LLC is a partnership by default and files a partnership return rather than the 5472-on-1120 package shown here.
• Corporate tax election. If the LLC elected to be taxed as a corporation, it files a genuine Form 1120 and the 5472 attaches to that real return, not a pro forma shell.
• Related entities, not just you. If the LLC transacts with a foreign company you also own, those dealings are reportable too, beyond your personal contributions and distributions.
• Loans with interest. A genuine loan between you and the LLC, and interest on it, are reportable amounts in their own right and sit separately from capital contributions.
• No transactions at all. An LLC that was funded entirely from a US business account it already held, with zero owner contributions and zero distributions in the year, may have nothing reportable, though that is rare in a first year.

When your facts drift from the simple single-owner scenario, the form itself does not get harder so much as the question of which return applies gets more involved. That is the point to confirm your filing with a US tax professional who handles non-resident-owned LLCs rather than rely on a worked example written for the common case.

How does Form 5472 fit the rest of a Delaware LLC's year?

Form 5472 is a federal filing, and it is easy to confuse it with Delaware's own annual obligation, so it helps to see them side by side. Delaware charges your LLC a flat $300 franchise tax due June 1 from the second year onward, covered on our Delaware franchise tax page. That is a state fee with no relationship to your income. Form 5472, by contrast, is a federal information return about your transactions with yourself as owner. They are separate deadlines paid to separate authorities.

Neither one, on its own, says anything about whether you owe US income tax. That is a third question entirely: a non-resident owner is generally taxed only on income effectively connected to a US trade or business and on US-source FDAP income, the latter taxed at a default 30% unless a tax treaty in force reduces it. Filing Form 5472 every year while owing zero US income tax is a completely ordinary outcome. The setup, banking, and these filings are walked through on our how it works page and our Delaware LLC banking guide.

What does Form 5472 cost to handle, and what is the risk of skipping it?

The dominant number to remember is the downside, not the upside. The penalty under IRC section 6038A for failing to file a complete, accurate Form 5472 on time is $25,000, assessed per form per year, with additional amounts if non-compliance continues after the IRS sends a notice. The IRS treats a substantially incomplete form like a non-filed one, so a sloppy filing is not meaningfully safer than no filing. That is the entire reason non-resident owners file even in a quiet year.

Against a potential $25,000 penalty, the cost of doing the filing properly is small. For owners who would rather not manage the fax-or-mail mechanics and the April 15 date themselves, formation and compliance services commonly track the deadline and prepare the package; our flat $397 formation covers the setup and year-one compliance tracking, and the ongoing 5472 work is a separate add-on. Whatever route you take, the principle is the same: a foreign-owned single-member Delaware LLC should file Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 every year, on time, with proof kept. For where this fits among every Delaware filing, start from our Delaware LLC hub.

One more practical note that the worked example makes concrete: the form is a year-by-year obligation, not a one-time chore. Each tax year stands on its own, with its own contributions, its own distributions, and its own April 15 deadline. The owner in the example will file again next year for whatever owner-to-company money moved in that year, and the year after that, for as long as the LLC exists and stays foreign-owned and disregarded. Building the habit early, with a clean ledger of owner transactions and a calendar reminder a few weeks before each deadline, is what turns a $25,000 risk into a routine half-page filing. If your situation moves beyond the simple single-owner case, confirm the details with a qualified US tax professional rather than assuming this example still fits.