Throughout the year, we have provided several updates about the 2024 Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting mandate. Recently, there’s another development you should be aware of. If you haven’t already submitted your BOI report to FinCEN, you’ll want to carefully consider the announcement and its potential impact.
On December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction, suspending the U.S. Treasury Department and FinCEN from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its BOI reporting requirements. This court ruling temporarily relieves all reporting companies from the reporting rule. This ruling includes those companies facing the January 1, 2025 filing deadline.
This means, existing reporting companies are not obligated to meet the BOI filing requirements or adhere to the January deadline…for now.
Should you wait and see or should you file your BOI report now? I advise business owners to be cautious! At this point, the ruling has only temporarily paused the requirements and filing deadline.
FinCEN has issued a statement on its Beneficial Ownership Information website page. Here’s an excerpt from that alert:
“In light of a recent federal court order, reporting companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN and are not subject to liability if they fail to do so while the order remains in force. However, reporting companies may continue to voluntarily submit beneficial ownership information reports.”
The federal government might appeal the injunction, so reporting companies should get their information together so they can prepare to submit a BOI Report should the injunction be lifted. Reporting deadlines, like January 1st, may still apply if that occurs. That could leave many companies non-compliant with the CTA and FinCEN or require them to rush their filing in hopes of dodging penalties.
Many businesses have decided not to gamble and file a BOI report now for peace of mind. Doing so eliminates the risk of incurring steep fees and penalties later.
Please note that the information in this blog post is current as of December 9, 2024. However, this is an evolving situation, and things could change based on new activity related to the court order. Businesses should proactively monitor developments so they remain informed.
CorpNet Is Here to Support You
We are here to prepare and submit BOI reports, as well as handle other business compliance filings, for our customers while the injunction is in effect. If you don’t want to risk non-compliance and its severe consequences, we can assist you in filing a BOI report today.
