We have previously reported on the impending deadline of May 29, 2015 for all U.S. individuals and entities with 10% or greater interest in any “foreign affiliate” to file Form BE-10 with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (“BEA”) – a deadline which caused no small amount of consternation among many who had no idea of their obligation to report or who realized that the BEA’s own estimate of the burden to complete this report was 144 hours per response. Many were scrambling to complete their report or file for an extension as the deadline neared.

With little fanfare, the following message appeared on the BEA BE-10 Form website sometime on May 28, 2015:

While no press release or Federal Register Notice accompanies this announcement, this blurb on the website amounts to a last-minute reprieve for all new filers of Form BE-10.  One can only imagine that BEA was inundated with extension requests, an outcome that would have been obvious to everyone but the BEA economists hunkered down in their cubicles and with little contact, apparently, with the outside world.

Those who have previously filed Forms BE-10, BE-11 or BE-577 are not off the hook for the May 29, 2015 filing deadline and must complete their report or file for an extension by the deadline.June 30 will arrive soon enough, and the amount of data and effort necessary to complete the Form BE-10 report should prompt those new filers given a brief respite to start working on this onerous task now rather than on June 29th.