The on-again, off-again Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which requires upwards of 32 million U.S. businesses to submit beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports to the U.S. Treasury Department, is back on with a filing deadline of March 21. A February 18 U.S. District Court decision lifted an earlier injunction that had paused enforcement of the BOI reporting requirement. Generally, the legislation exempts securities brokers or dealers, licensed insurance producers, public accounting firms, and several other types of companies, but many of the business owner clients of NAIFA members are subject to the CTA.
NAIFA supports bipartisan legislation passed by the House of Representatives that would extend the deadline by one year. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC), a former NAIFA member, has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Ongoing lawsuits challenge the CTA, but for now the law and the BOI reporting requirement remain in place.
The CTA aims to curtail business practices that enable money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism, and corruption. Business owners who willfully fail to comply could face fines of $10,000 or more or jail time.