Form BE-605 Quarterly Foreign Direct Investment Survey: Filing and Deadlines

Form BE-605 is the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s quarterly survey of foreign direct investment in the United States. If a foreign person or entity owns at least 10 percent of your U.S. business and the business meets a size or intercompany-debt test, you file within 30 days of each quarter’s close — 45 days for the final quarter of your fiscal year. Submission runs through BEA’s eFile portal, and civil penalties for missing a filing now reach $59,114 per violation.

Who Has to File

Two conditions must both be true. First, a foreign person or entity has to own or control, directly or indirectly, at least 10 percent of the voting securities of your incorporated U.S. business, or an equivalent interest in an unincorporated one. That stake makes your business a “U.S. affiliate” in BEA’s terminology.¹ Indirect chains count. If a foreign grandparent controls a foreign subsidiary that holds 10 percent of your company, the requirement is triggered.

Second, you have to meet a size test, and there are two tracks:

If the foreign parent holds its interest directly, you file when the affiliate’s total assets, annual sales or gross operating revenues, or annual net income (or loss) exceeds $60 million at any point during the fiscal reporting year.²
If the foreign parent holds its interest indirectly, you file whenever the affiliate carries any intercompany debt balance with the affiliated foreign group. The $60 million threshold doesn’t apply.²

BEA’s authority to collect this data comes from the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act, 22 U.S.C. 3101–3108.³ Filing is not optional once the thresholds are met.

If BEA Contacted You but You Don’t Meet the Thresholds

Ignoring a BEA notice is not the same as being exempt. You have to file a formal claim for exemption by the normal due date. On the form, complete the front page, fill out the Claim for Exemption section on page 15, and complete the Contact Information and Certification sections on page 16.¹ First-time recipients also complete pages 3 and 5. If you fax rather than mail, send only the front page and the Claim for Exemption section.

Silence looks like refusal. The exemption claim is what protects you.

What Data to Gather Before You Start

BE-605 captures the quarterly flow of money and obligations between the U.S. affiliate and its affiliated foreign group. Pull records in these categories:

The name and country of the foreign parent that holds the direct or indirect ownership.
End-of-quarter intercompany debt balances — receivables and payables, broken down by long-term debt, short-term loans, notes, and trade payables. BEA also asks for the currency composition, reported as the U.S. dollar value of debt denominated in euros, yen, and other currencies, not the foreign-currency amounts.⁴
Interest paid to or received from the foreign parent group during the quarter.
Equity transactions: dividends declared (paid or unpaid), capital contributions, and any withdrawals during the reporting period.¹
Income statement items — net income, retained earnings, and related figures for the quarter.

Report all monetary values in U.S. dollars rounded to thousands, dropping the last three zeros.¹

When Several U.S. Entities Share a Foreign Parent

BEA generally wants one consolidated BE-605 rather than a separate report from each subsidiary. Start with the top-tier U.S. entity — the one in which no other U.S. entity holds more than a 50-percent direct voting interest. Roll in every lower-tier U.S. entity where the top-tier company (or another already-consolidated entity) holds more than 50 percent of the direct vote, provided no other foreign entity outside the parent group holds 10 percent or more.¹

Exclude any foreign entities the U.S. affiliate owns, any U.S. entity where the top-tier company does not hold a majority vote, and any U.S. entity in which a different foreign person holds 10 percent or more. Each excluded U.S. entity files its own BE-605 unless it qualifies for an exemption.

How to Submit

The primary method is BEA’s eFile portal at www.bea.gov/efile. If you don’t have an account, select “Create Account” on the login page.⁵ You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. Once you’re logged in, you can download blank templates, review prior quarter submissions, and upload the completed report. Save the electronic confirmation the system returns.

If you cannot use the portal:

Mail: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Direct Investment Division, BE-49(Q), 4600 Silver Hill Rd, Washington, DC 20233.¹
Fax: (301) 278-9503.

Keep the transmission receipt or certified mail record. That’s your proof of timely filing.

Deadlines and Extensions

The standard due date is 30 days after the close of each calendar or fiscal quarter. For the final quarter of your fiscal year, the deadline is 45 days out to accommodate year-end closing.¹

Extensions are available, but you must ask before the due date. For 30 days or less, a phone call or email may be enough. For more than 30 days, the request has to be in writing and explain why. Send extension requests to BE-140extension@bea.gov or fax them to (301) 278-9506.⁶

Penalties for Not Filing

The statutory civil penalty range is $2,500 to $25,000 per violation.⁷ After inflation adjustments, the current range is $5,911 to $59,114.⁸ Each missed quarter is a separate violation.

Willful non-compliance is criminal. A person who intentionally refuses to submit required information faces a fine of up to $10,000 and, for individuals, up to one year in prison. Corporate officers, directors, employees, or agents who knowingly participate face the same penalties, and BEA can also seek a court injunction to compel filing.⁷ A late filer who asks for an extension almost never triggers enforcement; a company that goes silent usually does.

What Happens to Your Data

BEA cannot publish or release data in any form that would let someone identify an individual reporter without that reporter’s prior written permission. The data may be used only for statistical and analytical purposes, and BEA is legally barred from sharing it with other government agencies for tax, investigative, or regulatory purposes.⁹

Survey responses are also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Courts have held that 22 U.S.C. 3104(c) prevents disclosure of individual reports in response to FOIA requests.⁹ Your intercompany balances and income figures feed aggregate national statistics and go nowhere else.

1
Bureau of Economic Analysis. BE-605 Quarterly Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States
2
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. International Surveys: Foreign Direct Investment in the United States
3
Bureau of Economic Analysis. 15 CFR Part 806 – Direct Investment Surveys: Raising Exemption Level for Two Surveys of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States
4
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. How Should the Currency Composition of Intercompany Debt Receivable and Payable Balances Be Reported on the BE-605 Survey
5
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. How Do I Submit My Report Through the BEA eFile System
6
Bureau of Economic Analysis. How Do I Request a Filing Extension
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 3105 – Enforcement
8
eCFR. 15 CFR Part 6 – Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation
9
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Legal Authority and Confidentiality of International Survey Collections