The item that matters most is Form 5472, an information return the IRS expects every year from a foreign-owned US company, even one that owes no US tax at all. Miss it and the stated penalty is 25,000 dollars. Almost everything else on the calendar is routine by comparison.
That imbalance is why so many British owners are caught out. Forming the company takes days and feels like the hard part. The obligation with real teeth arrives months later, sends no reminder, and sits in a set of IRS regulations most founders never read.
Why Form 5472 sits at the centre of the year
A US LLC with one owner is, by default, a disregarded entity for US federal tax purposes. It files no income tax return of its own, which is where the misunderstanding starts. Since the rules on foreign-owned disregarded entities were tightened, the IRS has required these companies to file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, by the due date of that Form 1120, including extensions. For a company on the calendar year, that points to mid-April unless an extension is requested.
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