Dec. 28—Barby Myers, president of the Claremore Area Chamber of Commerce, said small businesses should file their Beneficial Ownership Information reports despite their status in legal limbo.
The federal Corporate Transparency Act, which took effect Jan. 1, gave small businesses until Dec. 31 to file a BOI report with the federal government. The point of the reports was to give the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network a record of who owns American businesses.
A Texas court blocked the federal government from enforcing the CTA Dec. 3, nixing the requirement to file a BOI report. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling Monday and postponed the filing deadline to Jan. 13, 2025.
A different panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Monday decision Thursday — that means as of Thursday, businesses are not required to file a BOI report.
Barby Myers, president of the Claremore Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber recommends businesses to file anyway.
“It doesn’t take that long to file,” Myers said. “…We would encourage you to file because we don’t really know what the court’s going to do.”
The Corporate Transparency Act requires any business with more than 20 employees must file — there are 23 exceptions, including banks, governmental entities, nonprofits and insurance companies.
Before the Texas court’s injunction went into effect, businesses who failed to file by Jan. 1, 2025, would have faced civil penalties of up to $591 per day. Business owners could have been sentenced to up to two years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
Myers said any business owner who plans not to file should keep an eye on the news.
“You don’t want to incur any fines or any even incur the opportunity to have them,” Myers said. “So if you’re not gonna file because you’re waiting to see what’s gonna happen with the courts, I would just caution to just pay attention and make sure you’re monitoring all the things so that you’re ready.”
She said she believed the reporting requirements were an overreach since business owners already have to file much of the information the report requests: the name of the business and business owner, the business’ address, a form of photo identification.
Myers said regardless of whether the courts throw out the requirement or Congress extends the deadline, there’s no harm in filing.
“If you don’t want to have to worry about it, just file, and if it doesn’t matter, it’s for peace of mind,” Myers said.