Part I—Transfers by U.S. Persons — 1225 Inst 3520 (PDF)

Complete Part I if you are responsible for reporting a reportable event that occurred during the current tax year, you transferred property to a related trust in exchange for a loan, or you hold a valid loan. See Who Must File, earlier.

For information on what is a reportable event, see Reportable Event , earlier.

Note: Although the basic reporting requirements for Part I of Form 3520 are contained in section 6048 (and are clarified by Notice 97-34 ), the reporting requirements have been further clarified by the regulations under sections 679 and 684. Accordingly, the regulations under sections 679 and 684 should be referred to for additional clarification for transfers that are required to be reported in Part I of Form 3520.

8 Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. 12-2025)

Line 5a. Enter the name of the trust creator. If you are the trust creator, enter “Same as line 1a” on line 5a. If you are not the trust creator, enter the name of the person who created or originally settled the foreign trust.

Lines 5b and 5c. Enter the address and TIN, if any, of the trust creator. See Identifying Information , earlier, for specific information regarding the entering of addresses and TINs.

If you are the trust creator, enter “Same as lines 1c, 1e, 1f, 1g, and 1h” on line 5b, and enter “Same as line 1b” on line 5c.

Lines 6a and 6b. Enter the applicable two-letter country code from the list at IRS.gov/CountryCodes .

Lines 7 and 8. If you are reporting multiple transfers to a single foreign trust and the answers to line 7 or 8 are different for various transfers, complete a separate line for each transfer on duplicate copies of the relevant pages of the form.

Lines 7a and 7b. Check “Yes” if you are treated as a U.S. owner of any portion of the foreign trust under the grantor trust rules (sections 671 through 679). You must also complete line 7b and Part II of this form. Additionally, if another person is treated as an owner of the transferred assets, you must comply with the reporting requirements that would apply to a direct transfer to that other person. For example, if that other person is a foreign partnership, you must comply with the reporting requirements for transfers to foreign partnerships. See Form 8865, Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Partnerships.

Line 8. If the transfer was a completed gift (see Regulations section 25.2511-2), you may have to file Form 709, United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return. If the transfer was a bequest, you may have to file Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return.

Line 9. See U.S. Beneficiary, earlier.

Schedule A—Obligations of a Related Trust Complete the applicable portions of Schedule A with respect to all transfers to a related foreign trust in exchange for an obligation of the trust or a person related to the trust that took place during the current tax year.

Line 11. For additional information, see Obligation , Qualified Obligation , and Person related to a foreign trust , earlier.

Line 12. If you answered “Yes” to the question on line 11b with respect to any obligation, you must generally answer “Yes” to the question on line 12. By so doing, you agree to extend the period of assessment of any income or transfer tax attributable to the transfer and any consequential income tax changes for each year that the obligation is outstanding to a date 3 years after the maturity date of the obligation. When executed and filed, this form will be deemed to be agreed upon and executed by the IRS for purposes of Regulations section 301.6501(c)-1(d).

You have the right to refuse to extend the period of assessment. Pub. 1035, Extending the Tax Assessment

Period , provides a detailed explanation of your rights and the consequences of the choices you may make.

Note: If you answer “No” to the question on line 12, you generally may not treat an obligation as a qualified obligation on line 11b. The one exception to this is if the maturity date of the obligation does not extend beyond the end of your tax year for which you are reporting and such obligation is paid within that tax year.

Schedule B—Gratuitous Transfers Complete the applicable portions of Schedule B with respect to all reportable events (defined earlier) that took place during the current tax year.

Line 13.

In your column (b) description, indicate whether the property is tangible or intangible.
You may aggregate transfers of cash during the year on a single line of line 13.
If there is not enough space on the form, attach a statement.
For transfers reported on statements attached to the form, you must enter “Statement” on one of the lines in column (b) and enter the total amount of transfers reported on the statement in columns (c), (d), (e), (f), (h), and (i) of line 13.

Note: Penalties may be imposed for failure to report all required information. See Penalties , earlier.

Line 13, column (d). Enter the U.S. adjusted basis of the property transferred.

Line 13, column (e). Only include gain that is immediately recognized at the time of the transfer.

Note: Any transfer of appreciated assets by a U.S. person to a foreign nongrantor trust is treated as a sale or exchange, and the transferor must recognize as gain the excess of the FMV of the transferred property over its adjusted basis. This rule applies to a domestic trust that becomes a foreign trust, provided that the foreign trust is not a grantor trust. The domestic trust is treated as having transferred all of its assets to the foreign trust immediately prior to becoming a foreign trust. Although the gain is not recognized on Form 3520, it must be reported on the appropriate form or schedule of the transferor’s income tax return. See section 684. The transfer of assets, however, is reported on Part I of this Form 3520.

Line 13, column (f). Generally, if the reported transaction is a sale, you should report the gain on the appropriate form or schedule of your income tax return.

Lines 15 through 18. If you checked “No” on line 3 and you are required to complete Part I, acknowledging that the foreign trust did not appoint a U.S. agent who can provide the IRS with all relevant trust information, complete lines 15 through 18.

Line 15. Enter the name, address, whether the person is a U.S. beneficiary (defined earlier), and TIN, if any, of all reportable beneficiaries. Include specified beneficiaries, classes of discretionary beneficiaries, and names or classes of any beneficiaries that could be named as

Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. 12-2025) 9

additional beneficiaries. If there is not enough space on the form, attach a statement.

Line 17. Enter the name, address, and TIN, if any, of any person, other than those listed on line 16, that has significant powers over the trust (for example, “protectors,” “enforcers,” any person that must approve trustee decisions or otherwise direct trustees, any person with a power of appointment, or any person with powers to remove or appoint trustees, etc.). Include a description of each person’s powers. If there is not enough space, attach a statement.

Line 18. If you checked “No” on line 3, attach a copy of the following documents.

A summary of the terms of the foreign trust that includes a summary of any oral agreements or understandings you have with the trustee, whether or not legally enforceable.
A copy of all trust documents (and any revisions), including the trust instrument, any memoranda of wishes prepared by the trustee summarizing your wishes, any letter of wishes you’ve prepared summarizing your wishes, and any similar documents.
A copy of the trust’s financial statements, including a balance sheet and an income statement similar to those shown on Form 3520-A. These financial statements must reasonably reflect the trust’s accumulated income under U.S. income tax principles. For example, the statements must not treat capital gains as additions to trust corpus.
A copy of the trust’s organizational chart, including ownership structure and percentage of ownership.

Note: If these documents have been previously attached to a Form 3520-A or Form 3520 filed within the previous 3 years, attach only relevant updates.

Schedule C—Qualified Obligations Outstanding in the Current Tax Year

Line 19. Provide information on the status of outstanding obligations of the related foreign trust (or an obligation of a person related to the foreign trust) that you reported as a qualified obligation in the current tax year. This information is required in order to retain the obligation’s status as a qualified obligation. If relevant, attach a statement describing any changes in the terms of the qualified obligation.

If the obligation fails to retain the status of a qualified obligation, you will be treated as having made a gratuitous transfer to the foreign trust, which must be reported on Schedule B of this Part I in the year the obligation fails to meet the criteria for a qualified obligation. See section III.C.2 of Notice 97-34 .