Whether a business is required to report ownership information pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act has been back and forth over the last few months.  There has been an abundance of activity involving all three branches of the federal government regarding the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”). As you may be aware, there was a case in Texas that temporarily stayed the filings with the Corporate Transparency Act.  The Texas Court recently finalized a decision in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Smith v. U.S. Department of the Treasury.

As a result of the Smith decision, compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act is now required.  Companies required to report will be subject to liability if the company does not comply with the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership information  filing requirements. Recently, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued guidance which provided the deadlines for companies to file their beneficial ownership information reports. The guidance provided is as follows:

• March 21, 2025, filing deadline: is the new filing deadline for initial, updated and/or corrected BOI reports for most companies.
• Reporting companies subject to later deadlines: companies that qualify for later deadlines (e.g., companies eligible for a disaster relief extension) may continue to comply with the later deadlines.
• FinCEN review of beneficial ownership information requirements: FinCEN has provided that it will consider options to further modify its deadlines and will provide an update before March 21, 2025. FinCEN also stated that it intends to initiate a process later in 2025 to revise the reporting requirements to reduce the burden for lower-risk entities.

Due to the recent Court decision and other activity with the federal agencies, it appears that compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act is going forward.  Based upon this information, companies should be prepared to comply.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.