BE-125 Reporting

Overview

The University of Pennsylvania is required to report certain foreign transactions with affiliates or non-affiliates of the University to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis on the Form BE-125, Quarterly Survey of Transactions in Selected Services and Intellectual Property with Foreign Persons.

Transactions covered by the survey consist of:

• Sales and purchases related to intellectual property (patents, copyrights, etc.) and
• Sales and purchases of services.

Types of transactions excluded from the scope of the survey include:

• Sales and purchases of goods. Trade in goods involves products that have a physical form.
• Sales and purchases of financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, financial derivatives, loans, mutual fund shares, and negotiable CDs.
• Income on financial instruments (interest, dividends, capital gain distributions, etc.)
• Compensation paid to or received by employees.
• Penalties and fines and gifts and grants in the form of goods and cash.
• Travel-related services (including hotel accommodations, restaurant meals, and other expenditures while on travel).
• Tuition and fees charged to U.S. and foreign persons by educational institutions when the students travel to the institution for study (i.e., foreign exchange students).
• Health services provided to non-residents who are present in the territory of the service provider (i.e., foreign patients treated in the United States or vice-versa).

The required reporting of this foreign activity is under the oversight of the Vice President for Finance.  The Vice President for Finance has delegated the responsibility of gathering the data and submitting the reports to Corporate Tax, Compliance & Payroll.

• Revenues – School and Administrative/Business Unit responsible for managing the revenue-generating activity
• Expenditures in Penn Marketplace – Corporate Tax, Compliance & Payroll
• Expenditures outside of Penn Marketplace (includes UPHS and Penn affiliates that maintain separate accounting systems/books of record) – School and Administrative/Business Unit responsible for processing the foreign payments

How and When to Report

What must be reported to Corporate Tax, Compliance & Payroll?

Sales to or purchases from foreign persons for all services (except those specifically excluded above) or intellectual property (patents, copyrights, etc.) at the end of each quarter, regardless of dollar amount.

What are the reporting deadlines?

Data must be submitted using the Quarterly Foreign Reporting Template according to the schedule below:

Where do I submit reports?

Please submit your reports to Leslie Fowlkes, Tax Analyst, Corporate Tax, Compliance & Payroll at lfowlkes@upenn.edu.

Where can I get additional information on what to report?

Form instructions for the BE-125 can be found on the Bureau of Economic Analysis – US Department of Commerce website https://apps.bea.gov/surveys/be125/.  Frequently asked questions and blank forms can also be found on the website.

I have also been asked to report on foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Gift Disclosure Act. Is this the same requirement?

No. The foreign gift and contract reporting is submitted semi-annually to the U.S. Department of Education and to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, some of the information you report may be responsive for both requirements: reporting foreign gifts and contracts to the federal and state Departments of Education, and reporting foreign revenues and expenses for foreign activities to the federal Department of Commerce.

Staff Resources

PennKey required

• Reporting Foreign Transactions – Comparison Matrix
• BE-125 Report Revenue Template (xlsx)