The deadline for submission of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) five-year benchmark survey regarding foreign direct investment in the United States is rapidly approaching.1 The survey, known as the BE-12 survey, is required for U.S. businesses in which a foreign entity or person holds, directly or indirectly, 10 percent or more of the U.S. business' voting interests at any time during 2017 or an equivalent share in an unincorporated enterprise. The filing deadline is on or before May 31, 2018, for hard copy submissions, and on or before June 30, 2018, for submissions through the BEA's e-file system. The qualifying businesses must file regardless of whether the entity is contacted by the BEA.
The reporting period is the U.S. business' fiscal year that ended in 2017. There are four versions of the survey: BE-12A, BE-12B, BE-12C, and the BE-12 Claim for Not Filing. The specific version that a U.S. business must file is determined by the size of the U.S. business and its percentage of foreign ownership. The information that is required to complete the survey, at a general level, includes identification of foreign investors and parents, major products and/or services provided by the U.S. business, sales or gross operating revenues, balance sheet information, income and employment information, as well as financial and operating data for the U.S. business.
The BEA may impose civil and/or criminal penalties for failure to submit the BE-12 survey. The BEA surveys are confidential and may be used only for statistical and analytical purposes, and may not be used for taxation, investigation, or regulatory purposes.
