USA US Partnership with a Foreign Partner

[ChereCK]

A US citizen created an LLC with a friend in India. The first year (last year) they had barely any income, and without a partnership agreement or anything legal to worry about, the US citizen filed his small income on Schedule C. Now, they want to formalize their partnership and get legal help with partnership agreement, etc. Would it mess up the original filing with the IRS if in 2020 they file a 1065 with a foreign partner? Wouldn't it be easier to keep things they way they are, and have them just "do business" together? They could pay each other and record income and expenses rather than open up all the tax issues that come with having a foreign partner. Thoughts? Thanks for your help!

 

[annabuzh]

Definitely opens the whole can of worms and compliance burden is tough. But the right thing would be to file as a partnership with a foreign partner. When there is barely any income, there are no issues, but with higher income, a US partner would not want to pay taxes on foreign partner's share of income I would imagine?