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Filling form 5472 and 1120 (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by ayoubmp@alien.top to c/digitalnomad@expats.zone

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Hello Folks,

do you usually file the 5472 and 1120 yourself self or do you engage someone expert to do it?

I want to engage someone to help me do it correctly, but the fees are super hight.

I found some folks in Upwork doing it with a reasonable price, what do you think folks? any guiance on that?

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[–] kalenjohnson@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Honest question, how/why are you incorporated without an accountant you trust? But, if your accountant isn't available anymore, and you're looking for a new one.... I can't imagine Upwork is the place to find one. By "reasonable" I assume you mean cheap. When the penalty for not filing or filing incorrectly one of these forms is $10k, not sure I'd be looking for an accountant on Upwork...

I would say you'd be much better off with something like myexpattaxes.com , there are other apps like it, but I've been pretty happy with this one. They handle filing of foreign corporations, it costs more, but at least you know they are set up to handle most situations

[–] ayoubmp@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

I'm a non-US resident and I have an LLC incorporated in Delaware, myexpattaxes.com will work for me as well

[–] CommitteeOk3099@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Please specify the country for specific tax advise.

In general my advice would be to get a tax accountant to file them for you. Otherwise apps like TurboTax can help.

[–] ayoubmp@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

I'm a non-US resident and I have an LLC incorporated in Delaware, TurboTax should work for me ?

[–] dmada88@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

5472 is a daunting form to do correctly. If you have a company and need to file, you are much safer engaging an experienced accountant.

[–] ayoubmp@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

as a US non resident, do you recommend someone/services for me that I can reach out to ?

[–] dmada88@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

You need to find someone who understands both the us system and the system of the place where you live/where your company is. All the tax systems need to be worked together to limit your exposure.

[–] selindr0m@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Depends what stuff do you do with your llc. If it’s for freelancing, consulting, saas, etc with no actual us activity (etbus) and single ownership ( foreign owned de llc ) the filing should be very simple, just check youtube videos and can do by yourself. In fact many providers charging high $ exactly for this reason when you see how simple it’s to file next year you can do it by yourself. Since you registered in Delaware either you have complicated requirements or you didn’t research enough as Delaware is overkill for simple things. If you have real estate, physical presence, fbar income, ecom, etc - definitely get an accountant, but if you did, you’d already had one. These forms are mostly for transparency because many us citizens were messing with ownership structures to hide large volumes. It even says for income less then $50k just write “<$50k” so if your income is low it’s highly unlikely anybody will care even if you have some mistakes and even then there’s “abatement” for reasonable mistakes although still expensive. Since you ask about it and ask far ahead of the filing deadline its your first year and you worry. It’s a risk, assess it. Maybe worth paying once and file next years after you learn what to check and do. * not a legal advice *

[–] ayoubmp@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

u/selindr0m - to be honest that's the most complete answer I saw so far. you really zoomed in and highlighted the necessary things that anyone like me needs to know,
You're right, I did some research, and I found that Delaware is expensive, and I don't think it will add value to what I m doing.

and yes, my plan is to engage an accountant to help me do the forms this year, and I'll do it myself the next one :).

I've also heard that an FBAR form is needed just in case LLC income exceeds 10K USD at any given time during the year, is that right?

[–] selindr0m@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fbar is for foreign owned assets. Does you llc own foreign bank accounts? Delaware can be redomesticated into Wyoming, New Mexico etc but it may be worth just opening a new llc can be cheaper. Search llc university

[–] ayoubmp@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hello u/selindr0m who's handling the redomestication, registered agent?

[–] selindr0m@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It’s a multi step process, but you can do it by yourself. If your current argent doesn’t support the destination state you’ll need to change it also.

[–] ayoubmp@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Wonderful,

do you recommend any registered agent in an optimized Tax franchise state?

I'm thinking of contacting a new registred agent and see if he can handle the process.