At what point should an EB-5 investor expect to receive a K-1 tax form?

When an EB-5 investor should expect to receive a K-1 tax form is contingent on the particular regional center they are investing through and when the center begins distributing profits to its EB-5 investors. However, typically speaking, the K-1 form will not be issued to the EB-5 investor until the investor’s I-526 petition has been approved, because in most cases the investor’s invested capital will not be taken from their escrow account until United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has approved the I-526 petition. Once the I-526 petition has been approved, the invested funds have been taken from escrow, and the investment has been made, this is when the investor can expect to receive a K-1 tax form.

In certain cases, if the EB-5 investor is acknowledged as a limited partner or some other form of shareholder in a new commercial enterprise (NCE), they will likely receive a Schedule K-1 after the first year of investment and for each subsequent annual tax return filed by the business or project.

Schedule K-1 Form

An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax form, the Schedule K-1 is issued annually for an investment in a partnership. In the case of a business that operates as a partnership, it is each partner’s duty to pay taxes on the business’ generated income. Thus, each partner is responsible for reporting their share of the partnership’s income, earnings, losses, credits, deductions, dividends, etc. For EB-5 purposes, the regional center will distribute a Schedule K-1 to each EB5 investor to report their share of the relevant tax items.

The IRS mandates that all complying entities, including enterprises and businesses, issue a K-1 form to investors. This is especially applicable to EB-5 investors because most regional center sponsored projects are structured as limited partnerships.

Due to the structure of the United States tax code, certain entities can employ pass-through taxation, which essentially transfers the income tax liability from the aforementioned entity to individuals with beneficial interest in the income. The Schedule K-1 form effectively keeps track of the amounts of capital that are transferred to each partner with a beneficial interest in the entity’s income.