Penalties for willfully not complying with the BOI reporting requirement can result in criminal and civil penalties of $500 per day and up to $10,000 with up to two years of jail time.

Companies must report the following information: full name of the reporting company, any trade name or doing business as (DBA) name, business address, state or Tribal jurisdiction of formation, and an IRS taxpayer identification number (TIN). Additionally, information on the beneficial owners of the entity and for newly created entities, the company applicants of the entity is required. This information includes — name, birthdate, address, and unique identifying number and issuing jurisdiction from an acceptable identification document (e.g. a driver’s license or passport) and an image of such document.

There are different filing timeframes depending on when an entity is registered/formed or if there is a change to the beneficial owner’s information.

• New entities (created/registered in 2024) — must file within 90 days
• New entities (created/registered after 12/31/2024) — must file within 30 days
• Existing entities (created/registered before 1/1/24) — must file by 1/1/25
• Reporting companies that have changes to previously reported information or discover inaccuracies in previously filed reports — must file within 30 days

Any individual who, directly or indirectly, either:

• Exercises “substantial control” over a reporting company, or
• Owns or controls at least 25 percent of the ownership interests of a reporting company

An individual has substantial control of a reporting company if they direct, determine or exercise substantial influence over important decisions of the reporting company. This includes any senior officers of the reporting company, regardless of formal title or if they have no ownership interest in the reporting company. The detailed CTA regulations define the terms “substantial control” and “ownership interest” further.

There are 23 categories of exemptions. Included in the exemptions list are publicly traded companies, banks and credit unions, securities brokers/dealers, public accounting firms, tax-exempt entities, and large operating entities. A “large operating entity” employs more than 20 people and has reported gross revenue (or sales) of over $5M on the prior year’s tax return. Please note these are not blanket exemptions and many of these entities are already heavily regulated by the government and thus already disclose their BOI to a government authority. See fincen.gov/boi-faqs.

In addition, one of the most common exemptions are for INACTIVE ENTITIES.

To be considered “INACTIVE”, the entity must answer YES to all six of the following criteria:

1. The entity was in existence on or before January 1, 2020.
2. The entity is not engaged in active business.
3. The entity is not owned by a foreign person, whether directly or indirectly, wholly or partially. “Foreign person” means a person who is not a United States person. A United States person is defined in section 7701(a)(30) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as a citizen or resident of the United States, domestic partnership and corporation, and other estates and trusts.
4. The entity has not experienced any change in ownership in the preceding twelve-month period.
5. The entity has not sent or received any funds in an amount greater than $1,000, either directly or through any financial account in which the entity or any affiliate of the entity had an interest, in the preceding twelvemonth period.
6. The entity does not otherwise hold any kind or type of assets, whether in the United States or abroad, including any ownership interest in any corporation, limited liability company, or other similar entity.

Starting January 1, 2024, a significant number of businesses will be required to comply with the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA was enacted into law as part of the National Defense Act for Fiscal Year 2021. The CTA requires the disclosure of the beneficial ownership information (otherwise known as “BOI”) of certain entities from people who own or control a company.

It is anticipated that 32.6 million businesses will be required to comply with this reporting requirement. The intent of the BOI reporting requirement is to help US law enforcement combat money laundering, the financing of terrorism and other illicit activity.

The CTA is not a part of the tax code. Instead, it is a part of the Bank Secrecy Act, a set of federal laws that require record-keeping and report filing on certain types of financial transactions. Under the CTA, BOI reports will not be filed with the IRS, but with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), another agency of the Department of Treasury. Below is some general information for your consideration.

Entities organized both in the U.S. and outside the U.S. may be subject to the CTA’s reporting requirements. Domestic companies required to report include corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs) or any similar entity created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office under the law of a state or Indian tribe.

Domestic entities that are not created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or similar office are not required to report under the CTA.

Foreign companies required to report under the CTA include corporations, LLCs or any similar entity that is formed under the law of a foreign country and registered to do business in any state or tribal jurisdiction by filing a document with a secretary of state or any similar office.