This survey collects information on the activities of U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational enterprises, which offer details on the finances and operations of these affiliates, including their employment and compensation, sales, value added, capital expenditures, trade in goods, and expenditures for research and development. The benchmark BE-12 survey collects some direct investment data that is used in BEA's International Transactions Accounts and International Investment Position Accounts that isn't collected on the annual BE-15 survey. Also, the amount of detail available for some of the categories of information collected is greater in the benchmark survey BE-12 than in the annual BE-15 survey.
