Aug 9 -- The Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce, invites public comment by October 10, 2023 on the three-year extension of the Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S. (BE-15).
The Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (BE–15) obtains sample data on the financial structure and operations of foreign-owned U.S. business enterprises. The data are needed to provide reliable, useful, and timely measures of foreign direct investment in the United States to assess its impact on the U.S. economy. The sample data are used to derive universe estimates in nonbenchmark years from similar data reported in the BE–12 benchmark survey, which is conducted every five years. The data collected include balance sheets; income statements; property, plant, and equipment; employment and employee compensation; merchandise trade; sales of goods and services; taxes; and research and development activity for the U.S. operations. In addition to these national data, several data items are collected by state, including employment and property, plant, and equipment.
The survey, as proposed, incorporates the following change that was made to the 2022 BE–12, Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States:
(a) The expensed petroleum and mining expenditures item will be removed from the BE–15A form. The item is not a good fit conceptually as a component of property, plant, and equipment (capital) expenditures.
BEA contacts potential respondents by mail in March of each year; responses covering a reporting company's fiscal year ending during the previous calendar year are due by May 31 (or by June 30 for respondents that file using BEA's eFile system). Reports are required from each U.S. business enterprise in which a foreign person has at least 10 percent of the voting stock in an incorporated business enterprise, or an equivalent interest in an unincorporated business enterprise, and that meets the additional conditions detailed in the BE–15 forms and instructions. Entities required to report will be contacted individually by BEA. Entities not contacted by BEA have no reporting responsibilities.
BEA offers electronic filing through its eFile system for use in reporting on the BE–15 annual survey forms. In addition, BEA posts its survey forms and reporting instructions on its website (www.bea.gov/fdi). These may be downloaded, completed, printed, and submitted via fax or mail.
Potential respondents of the BE–15 are selected from those U.S. business enterprises that were required to report on the 2022 BE–12, Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, along with those U.S. business enterprises that subsequently entered the direct investment universe. The BE–15 is a sample survey; universe estimates are developed from the reported sample data.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 6,550 annually, of which approximately 3,350 file A forms, 1,700 file B forms, 1,000 file C forms, and 500 file Claim for Exemption forms.
Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (FDIUS):
https://www.bea.gov/international/di1fdiop
Current BE-15 forms:
https://www.bea.gov/surveys/fdiusurv
Current technical documentation:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=202105-0608-001
In response to AEAStat's request for draft data collection instruments and technical documentation, BEA indicates: "Survey forms collecting information on the 2023 activities of U.S. affiliates of foreign MNEs (BE-15) will not be available until later this year or early 2024. . . . The accompanying supporting statements are not yet ready, they will be submitted for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval and public information once the 30-day Federal Register Notice is published."
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-17022