My company purchased equity brokerage services from three countries: $100 thousand from Norway, $400 thousand from the United Kingdom, and $300 thousand from Venezuela (totaling $800 thousand). How should I report the data on the BE-180?

You are required to report the total for this service type in Table 1, on page 4 of the survey on the line corresponding with Service Code 1, Brokerage services related to equity transactions.

If this was your only transaction type to report on the BE-180 for purchases you have the option of providing BEA with more detail regarding these transactions, on a voluntary basis. Since your payments of $800 thousand fell below the total combined reporting threshold for purchases of $3 million, you can voluntarily report these data on Schedule B under transaction code 1, Brokerage services related to equity transactions, and list the country detail disaggregated by affiliation to the foreign service provider.

Note - if total combined sales of covered transactions with foreign persons are greater than $3 million, and/or total combined purchases of covered transactions with foreign persons are greater than $3 million, then you must provide the country detail on either Schedule A or B, as appropriate.