On March 2, the Treasury announced it will suspend enforcement of fines or penalties indefinitely for beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting. This suspension of enforcement will be for U.S. domestic reporting companies, their beneficial owners, and U.S. citizens — even after FinCEN issues an interim final rule by March 21 that would extend current reporting deadlines. The Treasury intends to narrow BOI reporting requirements to foreign reporting companies only, as part of “President Trump’s bold agenda to unleash American prosperity by reining in burdensome regulations.”
As previously covered by InfoBytes, the Corporate Transparency Act was implemented by FinCEN over the course of implementing three final rules to change access and use of BOI. Last year, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Alabama entered a final declaratory judgment concluding that the Corporate Transparency Act was unconstitutional (covered here). According to the court, the Corporate Transparency Act exceeds the Constitution’s limits on Congress’s power and does not have a strong enough connection to any of Congress’s listed powers to be considered a necessary or appropriate way to reach Congress’s policy objectives, and DOJ appealed not long after (covered here).
