Plain-language answers to the questions our clients actually ask
Educational content, not personalized tax advice. Figures and deadlines change every filing year, so confirm your own situation with us before acting on anything here.
Guide
You opened a US LLC from abroad: here is what you file, even with zero revenue
Foreign-owned single-member LLCs carry a federal filing requirement most owners never hear about until the deadline has already passed, and the penalty for missing it is $25,000. Zero revenue does not exempt you, and here is why.
Guide
Form 5472 instructions, in plain English
The official instructions are written for multinationals. If you own one foreign-owned LLC, most of the form's nine parts are not for you. Here is which parts you actually complete, what counts as a reportable transaction, and how the filing physically goes in.
Guide
You missed FBAR: here is the path back
Unfiled FBARs are common and there is a defined route back. Which route depends on one question: whether the income behind the account was already reported. Here is how each path works.
Guide
FBAR and Ukrainian bank accounts: what to report
The FBAR rules are the same wherever the account is. The practical questions are not. What to do about Ukrainian accounts you cannot access, hryvnia conversion, and the accounts people forget they still have.
Guide
FBAR penalties, and what actually happens in practice
The penalty numbers attached to FBAR are genuinely large, which is why they get quoted so often and understood so rarely. What the tiers are, what willful means, and what usually happens to people who come forward.
Guide
When FBAR is due, and why the extension is automatic
FBAR is due April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15, no request and no form. Here is why that quietly causes problems, and what the date means if you are already late.
Guide
FBAR filing: the key points
FBAR is not part of your tax return, and the $10,000 line is not your year-end balance. What actually triggers a filing, which accounts count, and the misreading that catches careful people.