The US filings to agree with your accountant
What a US company, or an ITIN, can bring with it in yearly filings, and the questions worth settling with your accountant before the first deadline.
What filings come with a US company, even if it made no money?
Owning a US company from abroad means filing with the IRS and with the state where it was formed, every year, whether or not it made money and whether or not any tax is due. A company with no US income still has forms to send. A missed information return is taken seriously even when no tax was owed.
A US company brings filings, even in a year it owes no US tax.
Owning a US company from abroad means filing with the IRS and with the state where it was formed, every year, whether or not it made money and whether or not any tax is due. A company with no US income still has forms to send.
Many owners learn this late, because nothing arrives to remind them. The deadlines exist whether anyone writes to you or not, and a missed information return is taken seriously even when no tax was owed.
The filings, by situation.
These are the federal filings we see most often. Your accountant confirms which apply, and the state may add its own.
| Situation | What is usually filed | When |
|---|---|---|
| A company with one owner | Form 5472, with Form 1120 | Each year, in spring |
| A company with two or more owners | Form 1065, with a K‑1 each | Each spring, a month earlier |
| An ITIN holder with US income | Form 1040‑NR | Each year with US income |
Ownership decides which forms apply.
The same company can face different filings depending on who owns it. A company with a single foreign owner is usually ignored for income tax, yet it still files an information return about its owner and the money that moved between them. Add a second owner and it is generally treated as a partnership, with a return of its own and a statement for each partner.
A change of ownership during the year changes the picture too. Tell your accountant before you bring in a partner or transfer shares, not after the year has closed.
Questions to settle with your accountant before the first deadline.
Raise these in the company’s first months, so the answers shape how the books are kept from the start.
- Which federal and state filings apply each year
- Who prepares and signs each return
- How money between you and the company is recorded
- Whether you need an ITIN, and for what
- Which deadlines fall in the first year
Deadlines arrive whatever the company earned.
A quiet year doesn’t move a deadline. A company formed late in the year may owe its first filings within a few months, and a company that has barely traded still reports what little it did. States set their own dates for annual reports, often tied to the month the company was formed.
Ask your accountant for one calendar with every federal and state date, for the company and for you, and keep it with the company’s records. If an extension is available, ask early what it moves and what it doesn’t.
Keep the records a bank may also ask for.
The records your accountant needs and the records a bank asks for are mostly the same: formation papers, the EIN letter, bank statements, invoices and a short note on what each large transfer was for. A bank reviewing your account may ask for any of them, with a deadline of its own.
Keep them in one place, named so that anyone can find a document in a minute. When the bank writes, you can answer the same week.
More in Why US banks close accounts, and how to keep yours open.
An ITIN on its own can mean a return.
An ITIN is issued for a US tax reason, and that reason often brings a return with it. If you have US income in your own name, such as a share of a partnership’s profit, you may need to file a nonresident return for the year, even when tax was already withheld.
Holding an ITIN with no US income usually means nothing to file, but check with your accountant each year. An ITIN that goes unused on a federal return for a few years in a row can expire.
Your home country may want to know too.
Owning a US company or a US account can matter to the tax authority where you live, which may treat the company differently from the IRS. Put your two accountants in touch, so each knows what the other files.
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