Here is a practical, month-by-month checklist for the 2027 US filing season. It is written for a non-US founder with a US company that files Form 5472 + a 1120 (pro-forma for a disregarded single-member LLC, or a real 1120 for a C-corp or an electing LLC), has a calendar-year tax year, and operates a few bank accounts. If your fact pattern is different (fiscal-year LLC, corporate election, multi-member), the general shape still applies but the specific months shift.
The goal of this post is not to replace a filing. It is to give you a sense of pacing — of what should be happening when — so you can walk into your filing with no surprises.
December (prior calendar year)
Confirm your entity classification is still what you think it is
- Did you file Form 8832 at any point in the year to elect corporate taxation? Rare, but it changes your entire filing picture.
- Did a second member join the LLC? Multi-member LLCs are partnerships; the whole 5472 + pro-forma 1120 path does not apply.
- Did you (the owner) become a US tax resident during the year? If you spent enough days in the US to trigger substantial-presence, your residency changed and the LLC may no longer be a foreign-owned DE for the full year.
Pull all your statements for the year
- Each business bank account (Mercury, Wise, Payoneer, Relay, Brex, local banks).
- Full-year coverage. If an account was closed mid-year, the final statement counts.
- PDF format if your bank provides it; CSV if not.
- Your personal card too — you will want to search it for owner-paid expenses later.
Check your CP 575 is on file
- Open your drive and confirm the CP 575 or 147C letter is in a known location.
- If you cannot find it, request a 147C now. The IRS re-issue typically takes 2–4 weeks for international callers.
Close your contractor books
- If the LLC paid any US-person contractor $600+ for services, you owe 1099-NEC to that contractor and to the IRS by 31 January.
- Gather W-9s from any US contractor who does not already have one on file.
January
Deadline: 1099-NEC by 31 January
- For each US-person contractor paid $600+ for services, issue a 1099-NEC.
- Both the IRS copy and the contractor copy are due the same day — unlike several other 1099s, 1099-NEC does not have a later IRS-only deadline.
- Payments to corporations are generally exempt; payments through card processors are reported by the processor on 1099-K.
Start intake on your 5472
- Check your LLC’s legal name against the CP 575 letter. Any difference, flag it now — not in April.
- Review each owner’s foreign tax ID. For India residents, PAN. For UK residents, UTR. For UAE residents, Tax Residency Certificate if issued.
- List every related party. Spouse, siblings, parents, controlled entities. If you are not sure whether someone counts, flag them.
Review the Form 5472 instructions for the current year
- Download the current year’s 5472 instructions from IRS.gov.
- Compare the IRS fax number against your records. The number does change season to season.
- Confirm the pro-forma 1120 header language is unchanged (“Foreign-owned U.S. DE”).
February
Deadline: Delaware franchise tax (C-corps only) — 1 March
- If your entity is a Delaware C-corporation, this is the big state deadline. Calculate under both the authorised-shares and assumed par value methods; file under whichever is lower.
- $50 annual report fee is due at the same time.
- LLCs ignore this deadline — the LLC equivalent is 1 June.
Tag your transactions
- For each business bank account, categorise every related-party transaction into one of the eight 5472 categories (contribution, distribution, loan from owner, loan to owner, loan repayment, owner-paid expense, expense paid for owner, services).
- Check your personal card for owner-paid expenses. This is where most self-filers miss items.
- Any transaction you cannot categorise cleanly — flag it for review. “Unclear” tags cannot remain at submit.
Start the review loop
- Hand your tagged transactions and draft 5472 to someone who has not been looking at them.
- If you work with BorderFile, this is the point at which reviewer picks it up.
- If you self-file, hand it to a CPA friend or an EA for a second-pair-of-eyes read.
March
Deadline: Delaware franchise tax (C-corps only) — 1 March
- As above. If you missed it, pay immediately — Delaware adds a $200 late penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest.
Finalise your draft
- Legal-name match confirmed against the CP 575.
- Address on the pro-forma 1120 is your registered-agent address (ideally).
- “Foreign-owned U.S. DE” header on the pro-forma 1120.
- All transactions tagged (none “unclear”).
- Gross contributions and distributions, not net.
- Signature line ready for the owner to sign in the correct capacity (“member” or “owner”).
Decide: file on time or extend?
- If the draft is clean and the owner can sign by early April, file.
- If the draft is not clean, or the owner is travelling or otherwise unable to sign, buy the Form 7004 extension before 15 April. The extension is free (ignoring our fee for preparing it), automatic, and buys six months.
April
Deadline: Form 5472 + pro-forma 1120 (or Form 7004 extension) — 15 April
- The hard deadline for a calendar-year LLC. By end of day 15 April (US time), the IRS must have either the full filing or a 7004 extension application in hand.
- Fax by default. BorderFile stores the confirmation page automatically; self-filers must keep the confirmation page in a known location.
If filing today
- Owner signs in correct capacity.
- Fax to the current year’s IRS fax number for 5472 (check the current instructions).
- Save the confirmation page as a PDF alongside the filing.
If extending
- Fill in Form 7004 (one page).
- Fax by the same date. Save the confirmation page.
- Set a calendar reminder for 15 October.
May
Catch-up and 1099 corrections
- If your 1099-NEC filings had any errors, this is the right time to file corrected 1099s. Corrected 1099s are a boring back-office process; do them while they are still fresh.
Delaware LLC annual tax prep (LLCs only)
- Confirm your Delaware LLC annual tax of $300 is on the calendar for 1 June.
- No annual report is required for an LLC; just the $300.
June
Deadline: Delaware LLC annual tax — 1 June
- Pay the $300 through the Delaware Division of Corporations portal.
- Save the receipt. Store it alongside your filing records.
- If you miss it, Delaware adds a $200 penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest and your entity enters “not in good standing” status.
If on extension
- You have four months left. Do not let the first two slip.
July–September
If on extension, do the actual work
- Finalise statements and tagging.
- Review loop.
- Owner signature.
- The clean-filer target is to be fully done by end of September so you have a buffer week in October.
Mid-year reality check
- Any new bank account opened mid-year? Add it to your intake list for next year.
- Any related party added (new spouse, new entity you now control)? Note it.
- Any residency change on the owner’s side? Note it; this can affect classification.
October
Deadline: Extended Form 5472 (if 7004 used) — 15 October
- Same fax process as the April filing.
- Save the confirmation page.
- There is no further extension beyond 15 October.
November–December
Next-year preparation
- Note any lessons from the year’s filing (e.g. “I paid a lot of LLC expenses from my personal card; I need to stop that”) and act on them.
- Confirm the registered agent is paid up for the following year.
- Pull next year’s statement set as early as you can — many banks make December statements available in early January.
Deadline: 1099 preparation for the following January
- Collect W-9s from any contractor who was paid $600+ during the current calendar year.
- Pre-draft the 1099s if you have the data.
In one sentence
The 5472 cliff is 15 April; everything else on this calendar exists to make the 15 April filing boring instead of panicked.
If you want BorderFile to run this calendar for you — not just the 5472, but 1099-NEC, Delaware, and the home-country coordination — the annual-compliance plan is designed exactly for that.