Tax Law Insights

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), conducts mandatory surveys to collect information on direct investment. There are three (3) specific surveys which track "out-bound" foreign investment: a quarterly survey, an annual survey, and a 5-year benchmark survey. The purpose of the quarterly survey is to report positions and transactions between a U.S. reporter and its foreign affiliates. The purpose of the annual survey is to report annual financial and operating data of the U.S. reporter and its foreign affiliates. The benchmark surveys are conducted every five years and provide the most comprehensive coverage of business entities, transactions, and data on investment being from the United States.

Quarterly Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad

(Form BE-577)

Due date: 30 days after the close of each calendar or fiscal quarter end; 45 days if the report is for the final quarter of the financial reporting year.

1. Form BE-577

• Required from every U.S. person that had direct transactions or positions with a foreign business enterprise in which it had a direct and/or indirect ownership interest of at least 10 percent of the voting stock if an incorporated business enterprise or an equivalent interest of an unincorporated business enterprise at any time during the reporting period. Reports are required even though a foreign affiliate may have been established, acquired, seized, liquidated, expropriated, sold, or inactivated during that reporting period.

• Filed for each directly owned foreign affiliate that has total assets, annual sales or gross operating revenues excluding sales taxes, or annual net income after paying foreign income taxes of more than $60 million at any time during the affiliate's fiscal reporting year.

• Also filed for each indirectly owned foreign affiliate that meets the $60 million threshold and that has an inter-company debt balance with the U.S. reporter that exceeds $1 million.

1. BE-577 Claim for Exemption

Filed if a foreign affiliate meets the following criteria for exemption:

• > The foreign affiliate's total assets, annual sales or gross operating revenues, and annual net income were equal to or less than $60 million for the most recent financial reporting year.
• > The U.S. ownership in the foreign affiliate is held indirectly and neither the foreign affiliate's end-of-quarter payables to the U.S. reporter nor the foreign affiliate's end-of-quarter receivables from the U.S. reporter exceeded $1 million.