How Much Does Form 5471 Preparation Cost?

Form 5471 has no IRS filing fee, so doing it yourself costs only your time. Paying someone costs real money: Taxes for Expats lists a $625 base price, WCG CPAs lists $750 to $2,500 as typical, and MyExpatTaxes sells a $939 corporate plan with one 5471 included. Not filing is the expensive option, a $10,000 penalty for each corporation for each year. For a US citizen or green-card holder who owns a Canadian corporation, we quote the work in writing after the Diagnostic. Our other published prices are on what cross-border tax help costs.

What does it cost to prepare Form 5471 yourself?

Nothing in fees. The Form 5471 instructions tell you to attach it to your income tax return and file both by that return’s due date, including extensions, and no fee is listed. The real cost is the work: a sole owner of a controlled foreign corporation completes all six pages plus a long run of separate schedules.

The instructions spell that run out. If you’re the sole owner of a CFC, meaning you’re described in Categories 4 and 5a, you “complete all six pages of Form 5471 and separate Schedules E, G-1, H, H-1, I-1, J, M, P, Q, and R.” You also file a separate Form 5471 for each foreign corporation, and every exchange rate on the form has to be reported using a “divide-by convention” rounded to at least four places.

The IRS used to print a time estimate for this form. The current instructions don’t: they say the burden for individual filers is “included in the estimates shown in the instructions for their individual and business income tax returns.” The Form 1040 instructions put the average business filer at 21 hours and $610 for the whole return, and that average covers every Form 1040 with a business schedule, not 5471 filers in particular.

What do firms charge to prepare Form 5471?

Few firms publish a 5471 price, and the ones that do price it as an add-on to your 1040. The published prices we found run from $625 (Taxes for Expats, base form) to $750 to $2,500 (WCG CPAs, typical). What sits on top of the base form is where quotes split, because the tested income and Subpart F calculations are billed separately at some firms.

Firm and line item	Published price	What the price covers, per the firm’s page
Taxes for Expats, Form 5471 base price	$625	The form itself
Taxes for Expats, extra Schedules I and P for another US shareholder	$150 combined	Reporting on behalf of another shareholder
Taxes for Expats, GILTI income calculations (Form 8992)	$350	The tested income math
Taxes for Expats, GILTI tax reduction analysis (sec 962 and more)	$650	The section 962 analysis
Taxes for Expats, Subpart F income calculation	$250	Subpart F only
Taxes for Expats, dormant corporation	$200	A corporation that meets every dormant condition
WCG CPAs, Form 5471 on an expat 1040	$750 to $2,500 typical	Add-on to a $1,000 to $1,200 typical expat return
MyExpatTaxes, Corporate Filing plan	$939	One Form 5471 or 8865 with related schedules; each additional 5471 is $359
Greenback, Form 5471	$750 active, $350 dormant	Flat fee per form
Bright!Tax, Form 5471 for a CFC with the GILTI calculation (Form 8992)	$1,350 ($1,650 if ownership changed during the year)	Dormant company $250; non-controlled foreign corporation $680

Prices above were checked on the firms’ own pages on October 18, 2026 and are in US dollars. They’re each firm’s list price for its own scope, not a market average, and none of those lines lists the Canadian T2 your corporation files with the CRA.

What makes a Form 5471 more expensive?

Three things move the price: how many corporations you report, which filer categories you fall into, and whether the corporation has income the US taxes you on before it pays you anything. A dormant holding company is close to a fill-in exercise. An operating company with retained earnings, a section 962 decision and several years of history is a project.

• Filer category. The category decides which schedules you owe. A sole owner files the full set listed above; owners in other categories owe a different list, set out category by category in the instructions. Whether you file at all is the first question, including when the corporation is your spouse’s.
• Number of corporations. One form per corporation, so a holding company over an operating company is two forms.
• Tested income and Subpart F. Schedule I-1 and the related calculations decide how much of the corporation’s income lands on your 1040 each year. The current instructions use the term “net CFC tested income,” and the renamed GILTI rules explain what that means for a Canadian company. Subpart F income is a separate calculation with its own triggers.
• The section 962 election. Electing to be taxed like a corporation can cut the US tax on the inclusion, and running both ways is billed analysis time.
• Earnings history. Schedules J and P track earnings and previously taxed earnings year over year. A first-year filer whose corporation has existed for a decade has to rebuild that history.
• Catch-up years. Every missed year is another full form.

What does Blue Cloud charge for Form 5471?

We don’t publish a number for it. Corporate cross-border work, a US person with a Canadian corporation included, varies too much for a useful starting price, so we quote it in writing after the Cross-Border Diagnostic. The quote covers the 5471, the 1040 it attaches to, and how both line up with the corporation’s Canadian filings.

That’s a deliberate choice. The table above shows how wide one form can run, and a starting price that ignores tested income and earnings history would be the wrong number for most owners of an operating company. If you’re also filing a personal return in Canada, the Diagnostic prices both sides at once. For the personal side alone, the cross-border return cost guide breaks down what moves an annual filing.

What happens if I don’t file Form 5471?

The penalty is $10,000 for each annual accounting period of each foreign corporation, under IRC 6038(b). If the form still isn’t filed 90 days after the IRS mails a notice, another $10,000 applies for each 30-day period, capped at $50,000 more per failure. The instructions add a 10% cut to the foreign tax credits available to you.

The bigger long-run cost is the statute. Under IRC 6501(c)(8), when information required under section 6038 isn’t furnished, the time to assess tax on the related return, event or period “shall not expire before the date which is 3 years after the date on which the Secretary is furnished the information.” If the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, the open period applies only to the items related to the failure.

The Form 5471 instructions also note that certain penalties under sections 6038 and 6662 may be waived for some filers under Rev. Proc. 2019-40, and that criminal penalties under sections 7203, 7206 and 7207 can apply. If a penalty has already been assessed, the abatement paths after the Tax Court rulings cover your options.

What should I do next?

Start with the facts that set the price: how many foreign corporations you own, your ownership percentage in each, and whether each one has retained earnings or passive income. Then ask any firm you’re comparing whether tested income, Subpart F and earnings-history work are included or extra. If you’ve missed years, don’t file the late forms piecemeal before deciding how the catch-up is handled.

• The Form 5471 reporting guide covers the CFC rules behind each schedule.
• The cross-border tax return cost guide covers the personal returns the 5471 sits beside.

This guide is general information, not tax advice for your specific situation. Which points apply, and how, depends on your facts.