Confusion and chaos on the status of the Corporate Transparency Act continues to unduly affect Small Business. Join NSBA in our efforts to repeal the CTA once and for all.
CTA: Don’t File BOI Reports Just Yet
UPDATE Jan. 24 11:55 a.m. ET:
FinCEN has posted an alert on their website confirming they will adhere to the Smith v. U.S. ruling and temporary injunction against filing BOI Reports, stating: “… reporting companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN despite the Supreme Court’s action.”
Read full details below.
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Despite yesterday’s (Jan. 23, 2025) announcement from the U.S. Supreme Court which issued a stay of the initial Texas case’s injunction that had prevented enforcement of Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), ANOTHER Texas court has ruled and filed ANOTHER injunction.
What this means? Small businesses are once again—at least for today—off the hook when it comes to filing their BOI reports.
As has become the norm with the CTA—and a glaring red flag for Congress to intervene—the various cases that have followed NSBA’s lawsuit against Treasury continue creating confusion for small businesses.
A far-less known case, Smith v. U.S., was granted a preliminary injunction on Jan. 7, 2025 by a different U.S. District Judge in Texas. According to that judge, the plaintiffs clearly established that the CTA is unconstitutional and that it represents a “substantial risk of irreparable harm” without an injunction pausing the rule. That injunction—unlike NSBA’s which was ONLY for NSBA members as of March 1, 2024—was applied by the judge nationally, meaning all small businesses have a temporary reprieve.
FinCEN has yet to weigh in on either the SCOTUS decision or the Smith v. U.S. case, but NSBA is strongly urging them to apply common sense and offer small businesses a modicum of certainty given the myriad lawsuits making their way through the courts following NSBA’s suit.
While any delay or injunction against the BOI filings is a positive thing, this latest Texas decision coupled with the SCOTUS announcement creates even more uncertainty for small business.
The CTA is merely a shifting of reporting duties from banks—who, up to this point have held the burden of such reporting—onto small businesses. The very small businesses we charge with creating jobs and keeping our communities thriving could face fines of up to $591 per DAY and serving up to two years of jail time.
NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken had this to say:
“Even though NSBA members as of March 1, 2024 are protected against the BOI reporting, we firmly stand behind our lawsuit and eagerly await a decision in the latest appeal filed in that case by the Department of Justice. That aside, NSBA represents every small-business owner in the country, and we will continue to pursue every legal avenue to overturn this unconstitutional rule. We will push for Congress to do the right thing and see the CTA for what it truly is: a burden of uncertainty and confusion that will do very little to actually stop money laundering.”
Click here for NSBA’s CTA Resource page.
