What is bea foreign-investment surveys?
BE-13 on formation, BE-605 quarterly, BE-12 benchmark — the surveys foreign-owned US companies actually owe, on a calendar.
Most India-origin founders who set up a Delaware C-Corp have never heard of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, because nothing about forming the company points at it. There is no BEA line item on the incorporation checklist, no registered agent that flags it, and no accountant who surfaces it automatically unless international-tax exposure is specifically part of their brief. The obligation exists anyway, and it exists the moment a foreign person or entity acquires 10% or more of a US business — which describes almost every founder-owned Delaware entity with an India-based cap table from day one.
Three separate forms cover three separate moments. BE-13 is triggered once, at the transaction itself — a foreign investor forming a new US entity, acquiring an existing one, or expanding an existing US affiliate — and it is due within 45 days of that transaction whether or not BEA has ever contacted the company. BE-605 is the ongoing one: once a US entity is confirmed as 10%+ foreign-owned and BEA has it in its reporting universe, quarterly filings track the financial relationship between the US affiliate and its foreign parent — balances owed, payments made, the transaction flow between them. BE-12 is the benchmark survey BEA runs every five years, and unlike BE-605 it applies to every qualifying entity regardless of whether BEA has sent a notice — the obligation to file exists independent of contact.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | BEA foreign-investment surveys, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your CPA or enrolled agent | Everything that carries a licence in United States — rendered exactly as written: issue compilation, review or audit reports — those are restricted to licensed cpa firms. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
BEA foreign-investment surveys in United States
BE-13 is due 45 days after the transaction, not 45 days after anyone asks
The trigger is the transaction — a foreign investor forming, acquiring, or expanding a US business enterprise — and the clock starts on that date, not on the date BEA sends a notice. BEA requires BE-13 filed regardless of contact, which is the detail most founders miss: a Delaware C-Corp formed with foreign-founder ownership owes a BE-13 in its first 45 days even though nothing about the incorporation process mentions it.
BE-605 tracks the money between the US affiliate and its foreign parent, every quarter
Once BEA has a foreign-owned US affiliate in its reporting universe, BE-605 asks for the ongoing financial relationship with the foreign parent — balances, payments, transaction flow — on a quarterly cadence for as long as the 10%+ foreign ownership continues. It is the recurring obligation in this group, and the one most likely to get missed in year two or three once the initial BE-13 filing is behind everyone.
BE-12 applies to every qualifying entity every five years, contacted or not
BEA's benchmark survey runs on a fixed five-year cycle and, unlike BE-605, does not wait for a notice — any US business enterprise that is 10%+ foreign-owned in a benchmark year has to file. The five-year gap is exactly long enough for a founder to have forgotten the entity owes anything to BEA at all, which is why we hold it as a calendar item rather than something the entity discovers when the notice arrives.
This is a statistical survey, not a tax return — penalties are the enforcement mechanism
No BEA form computes or triggers a tax liability, and no fee is charged to file. The government's leverage instead is direct: civil penalties, injunctive relief, and for a willful violation, criminal fines and imprisonment. Because filing correctly costs nothing and missing it carries real exposure, the economics only point one way — file on the calendar, every time a form is triggered.
What your CPA or enrolled agent receives from us
- A BEA-trigger determination for the transaction — which form (BE-13, BE-605, or BE-12) applies, based on the ownership event and the entity's current foreign-ownership percentage.
- The completed BE-13 form data set — investment transaction details, the foreign parent's identifying information, and the financial figures the specific BE-13 exemption or non-exemption claim requires.
- A quarterly BE-605 data package — balance-sheet items and transaction-flow figures between the US affiliate and its foreign parent, reconciled to the books for the quarter.
- A running BEA compliance calendar — the BE-13 filing date on record, each quarter's BE-605 due date, and the next BE-12 benchmark year flagged well ahead of time.
- Submission confirmation from BEA's eFile system for every form filed, held as the compliance record since no certificate is issued.
- A foreign-ownership percentage tracker, updated whenever the cap table changes, so a drop below or rise above the 10% threshold is caught rather than assumed.
