What counts as a reportable transaction on Form 5472?

The basic idea

Form 5472 is an information return about dealings between a US entity and its related foreign parties. For a foreign-owned single-member LLC, the related party is usually the owner. A reportable transaction is a transaction between those parties during the tax year — not the LLC's trading activity with unrelated customers.

Commonly overlooked items

Capital contributions

Money the owner puts into the LLC, including the initial funding of the bank account, is generally reportable.

Distributions and withdrawals

Transfers from the LLC back to the owner are reportable regardless of what they are labelled — profit, salary-like draws, or personal spending from the business account.

Payments made on behalf of the LLC

Registered agent fees, state filing fees, software subscriptions, or professional fees paid from the owner's personal card are transactions between the owner and the LLC.

Loans

Amounts advanced in either direction, plus any interest accrued or paid, are reportable and also affect the balance figures on the form.

Sales, services, rents, and royalties

Any goods sold, services rendered, property rented, or intellectual property licensed between the owner and the LLC belongs on the form.

What is generally not a reportable transaction

Ordinary transactions with unrelated third parties — customer revenue, payments to independent suppliers — are not reportable on Form 5472, although they may matter for other US filings depending on the facts.

Why this matters

Concluding "no reportable transactions" incorrectly is how a filing gets skipped, and a missing Form 5472 carries a $25,000 penalty per form. If the year included any movement of money between you and your LLC, the honest starting assumption is that something is reportable until reviewed.