If you are a US person with ownership, or an officer or director position, in a foreign corporation, probably yes. A US parent with an Indian subsidiary is almost always in scope.

Your filer category decides which schedules you complete. Penalties apply per form per year even when no tax is owed. Our Form 5471 page.

The same federal return every US C-Corp files. There is no Delaware-specific version of Form 1120.

What Delaware adds is franchise tax and an annual report, which are state obligations separate from the federal return. Companies often conflate the two and miss one of them.

A corporation incorporated in Delaware and taxed under subchapter C, meaning it pays tax at the entity level and can have unlimited shareholders, including foreign ones, across multiple stock classes.

It is the structure US investors expect. Our Delaware C-Corp guide covers what it involves.

Form 5471 is filed by US persons who own a foreign corporation. Form 5472 is filed by US corporations that are foreign-owned, reporting transactions with their foreign related parties.

One looks outward at a foreign subsidiary, the other looks inward at foreign ownership. Many India-US structures file both.

It reports transfers of property, including cash above a threshold, from a US person to a foreign corporation.

Funding your Indian subsidiary from the US parent can trigger it. The penalty is a percentage of the transferred value, so it is worth checking before the wire goes out. Our Form 926 guide.

Identifying details for the foreign corporation, its ownership and your filer category, plus financial statements: income statement, balance sheet, earnings and profits, and related-party transactions.

The financial data is reported in US dollars, so the subsidiary's books need translating. Our Form 5471 page covers the schedules.

A few, mostly where another US person files on your behalf for the same foreign corporation, or where multiple shareholders file jointly.

They remove duplicate filings rather than the obligation itself, and you still have to document why you relied on one. Our Form 5471 page covers the categories.

Every domestic C-Corp, every year, including companies with no revenue and no activity. Some other entities elect corporate treatment and file it too.

The zero-revenue case is the one founders get wrong. Our Form 1120 page covers who files and what the return needs.

Form 1040 is your personal return. Form 1120 is your company's corporate return, filed by the C-Corp as a separate taxpayer.

Owning a C-Corp does not merge the two. The company files its own return and pays its own tax, and you file personally on salary or dividends you receive.

Charitable organisations, social welfare organisations, social clubs, trade associations, labour organisations, veterans' organisations, and political organisations, among others the IRS lists.

Exempt status does not mean no filing. Most still submit an annual information return on Form 990 or one of its variants. More on US tax obligations.

You file an amended return correcting the error. Small arithmetic mistakes are often caught and adjusted by the IRS, which sends a notice rather than requiring an amendment.

Errors that change taxable income need fixing properly. Our Form 1120 page covers what the return requires.