Confusion over the status of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is causing hardship for businesses across the country. The legislation, passed in 2021, requires an estimated 32.5 million businesses to file paperwork providing sensitive information about ownership with a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury by January 1, 2025. Under the law, companies that fail to comply would face fines of up to $590 per day. A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Treasury from enforcing the reporting requirements, but that decision is under appeal.

This issue is important to NAIFA because many NAIFA members are business owners or provide financial services for small business clients, even if the CTA does exempt securities brokers or dealers, licensed insurance producers, public accounting firms, and several other types of companies. NAIFA has joined a group of trade organizations supporting legislation that would delay enforcement of the reporting requirements by one year even if the court’s preliminary injunction is lifted. In a letter to Congressional leadership, NAIFA and the other organizations strongly urge lawmakers to include language delaying the CTA requirements in a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government into the new year. Doing so would remove a great deal of uncertainty for American businesses.

The larger funding CR is currently hung up in Congress due to disputes over issues unrelated to the CTA funding provision.