Beginning on January 1st of 2024, many businesses will need to file a Beneficial Ownership report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a part of the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act aimed at preventing money laundering, tax fraud, and more. 

Corporations, LLCs, Limited Partnerships, and more will be required to file a report providing information on their beneficial owners to FinCEN. Beneficial owners can include anyone who exercises significant control over a company, such as the CEO, CFO, COO, or General Counsel or someone who controls at least 25% of the company’s ownership interests.

The details that will be required include the beneficial owner’s name, date of birth, residential address, and a driver’s license or passport number (including a copy of the driver’s license or passport). These details will be held on file but will not be made publicly available, or an individual can obtain a separate identifier from FinCEN that can be supplied instead of the personal details. 

Reporting companies are required to only provide the information for beneficial owners at the time of the filing, but must update these reports within 30 days of any change in beneficial owners or their information. A change includes the expiration of a driver’s license/passport even if none of the personal information on the document changed.

Failure to comply with these new rules can result in civil and criminal penalties that start at $500 per day with no maximum.

You can view a full section of frequently asked questions about this new policy at https://fincen.gov/boi-faqs. You can also reach out to us directly and we can provide you more detailed summarized information about the reporting requirements as well as put you in touch with someone to assist you in filing your Beneficial Ownership Report.