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U.S. Companies with Foreign Shareholders Need to File BE-12 Survey by May 31, 2018

April 2018

U.S. businesses in which a foreign entity or person holds, directly or indirectly, 10 percent or more of the U.S. business’s voting interests, are required to complete a mandatory survey by May 31, 2018.

The 2017 Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, or the BE-12 survey, recently released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (the “BEA”), is conducted every five years, and is the most comprehensive survey of foreign direct investments in the United States — one of seven mandatory surveys conducted by the BEA. The BEA uses the BE-12 to obtain data on foreign direct investments in the United States and to measure global business activities of U.S. multinational businesses and their impact on the U.S. economy.

The BE-12 survey compiles information such as the identification of foreign 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.

A U.S. entity in which a foreign entity or person holds, directly or indirectly, 10 percent or more of the U.S. entity’s voting interests — referred to by the BEA as a “U.S. affiliate” —  at any time during 2017, must complete one of the following four forms:

  • BE-12A: Filed for a U.S. affiliate that is majority owned by a foreign parent and has total assets, sales or gross operating revenues, or net income or loss greater than $300 million.
  • BE-12B: To be filed by (i) a U.S. affiliate that is majority owned by a foreign parent and has total assets, sales or gross operating revenues, or net income or loss greater than $60 million and less than $300 million, and (ii) a U.S. business that is minority owned by a foreign parent with total assets, sales or gross operating revenues, or net income or loss greater than $60 million.
  • BE-12C: To be filed by a U.S. affiliate with total assets, sales or gross operating revenues, and net income or loss less than or equal to $60 million.
  • BE-12 Claim for Not Filing: To be filed by U.S. affiliates that are contacted by BEA, but do not meet the reporting criteria (i.e. when the (i) foreign ownership in the U.S. affiliate has fallen below 10 percent; (ii) U.S. affiliate has been fully consolidated or merged into another U.S. affiliate; or (iii) U.S. affiliate was liquidated or dissolved).

The BE-12 must be completed by May 31, 2018 or June 30, 2018 (if submitting through the BEA’s eFile system), and is mandatory for those entities to which it applies. Information and a link to the BE-12 survey and access to the BEA’s eFile system can be found here: https://www.bea.gov/surveys/respondent_be12_be15.htm.


If you have any questions regarding the BE-12 survey or any other BEA survey, or if you need help completing the survey, please reach out.

Barbaros M. Karaahmet at +1 212 592 1570 or [email protected]

© 2018 Herrick, Feinstein LLP. This alert is provided by Herrick, Feinstein LLP to keep its clients and other interested parties informed of current legal developments that may affect or otherwise be of interest to them. The information is not intended as legal advice or legal opinion and should not be construed as such.