
<image generated by AI> Rachel R. Schwankl, Paralegal, contributed to this article. On August 11, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a final rule which permanently removes the requirement for United States companies and United States persons to report beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. The final rule became effective on August 14, 2026. FinCEN also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons—now exempt from the reporting requirements—from the beneficial ownership information database by working with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). When the deletion will occur is unclear. Updated FAQs directly from FinCEN may be accessed here. Our business practice group here at Barna, Guzy & Steffen is dedicated to staying informed and serving our clients’ best interests. If you have questions regarding your Minnesota business activity, our experienced attorneys are ready to assist you. Please contact your attorney directly, or email us at info@bgs.com or call us at (763) 780-8500. We look forward to connecting with you!
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If you have been following the “life” of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), an anti-money laundering law passed by Congress under the first Trump administration, you’ll have noticed the court challenges and on again, off again status. Those court challenges are likely moot at this point, as the Treasury Department announced on Sunday, March 2 that it will not enforce penalties or fines related to the CTA against US Citizens or domestic reporting companies. The CTA is a federal law that went into effect on January 1, 2024. The initial reporting deadline was December 31, 2024, with approximately 6.5 million filings made by that date. Estimates of the number of companies that should be filing exceed 30 million. Large companies and those in already regulated industries are exempt from filing. The actual filing is fairly simple, and the information is not public. Reporting has not been viewed as burdensome, although some companies have objected to being required to disclose ownership. At this time, FinCEN is still accepting filings, but we anticipate that few domestic companies will now elect to make the required filings. However, if your company has any foreign owners or is not a domestic (US) created entity, penalties and fines will still apply if the filing is not made. Further action…
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Update December 19th, 2024 On December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc., et al. v. Garland, enjoining the federal government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its reporting deadlines. On December 13, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal in the Fifth Circuit requesting an expedited briefing schedule and a ruling “as soon as possible, but in any event no later than December 27, 2024, to ensure that regulated entities can be made aware of their obligation to comply before January 1, 2025.” Reporting companies should continue monitoring developments in the coming days in case the January 1, 2025 deadline for filing is reinstated. Ready. Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) in 2020 as part of its initiative to crack down on illicit activities, such as money laundering, commonly associated with shell companies. Under the CTA, many entities formed or registered to do business in the United States will be required to report various information concerning their beneficial owners and decision-makers. The idea behind the law is to unmask the natural persons behind a given entity. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), under the direction of the United…
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