Corporate Transparency Act Registration Due By March 21st

Unless the Federal Courts or Trump Administration take further action, Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) registration forms are due by March 21st as part of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). CTA is an anti-money laundering law that will require millions of small business owners to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). As it currently stands, failure to file leads to penalties of up to $591 per day and could even lead to $10,000 in fines and jail time.  FinCEN requires beneficial ownership information, or BOI, to be filed online with items such as:

• Company's full legal name

• Business address
• ​State where the company was formed or first registered.
  
• Taxpayer identification number and an identity document, such as a filed Articles of Incorporation.
  
• Beneficial owners' full legal names and birth dates.
  
• Beneficial owners' home addresses.
  
• A photocopy of beneficial owners' U.S. driver's license or passport.

FinCEN has indicated that it intends to initiate a process “this year” to revise the BOI reporting rule to reduce burden for lower-risk entities, including many U.S. small businesses, but no details are available yet. In the meantime, not all businesses need to file, such as some sole proprietors, banks, publicly traded companies and non-profit organizations. For a complete list please click here.  Due to the late court ruling FinCEN extended the deadline by 2 weeks from the end of the year until January 13th, but some business groups are saying that is still not enough time and may appeal.