January 31, 2024 Last Edit: July 18, 2024
Guest attorney joins to provide information and answer frequently asked questions
Effective Jan. 1, 2024, the new beneficial ownership reporting requirement means that more than 32 million businesses must report information about their small business and business owners to a new federal database maintained by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The NFIB Small Business Legal Center presented the webinar “Beneficial Ownership Reporting is Here: What Small Business Owners Need to Know About the New Reporting Requirement” with guest Sandra Feldman of Wolters Kluwer CT Corporation.
“NFIB members are likely aware that NFIB was one of the few business groups to oppose the Corporate Transparency Act because of concerns about privacy and the burdensome impact on small businesses,” noted Elizabeth Milito, Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center. “Since the law took effect however, the NFIB Legal Center has worked to educate small businesses about the law, and that is why we have invited Sandra for this special presentation.”
Feldman gave a presentation on the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership information reporting law. She works to help small business owners and managers understand their compliance obligations under laws they are subject to in their business.
Some of the information Feldman covers about the beneficial ownership reporting law includes:
- Who has to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report
- What Information is reported
- Who is considered a beneficial owner
- When a report needs to be updated or corrected
- Penalties for not complying with the law
- And more!
“The term beneficial owner is defined extremely broadly, and it could include some individuals who you might not have realized were beneficial owners and I’d like to make sure you can identify and report all of your beneficial owners,” explained Feldman. “A beneficial owner is defined as any individual who, directly or indirectly, either exercises substantial control over a reporting company or owns or controls at least 25% of its ownership interests. Note that an individual can be a beneficial owner either by exercising substantial control or owning 25%, you don’t have to be both.”
The full webinar is available on-demand for more information on this new law. NFIB has more resources including a recent podcast episode with Milito and Jeff Brabant, Vice President of Federal Government Relations Jeff as well as a fact sheet about the guidelines for the law.
NFIB will continue to fight to repeal this law. TAKE ACTION: Join the fight and urge Congress to repeal the new law.
The next free webinar will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 12 p.m. EST with special guest Micah Fraim, CPA and small business tax expert. He will provide a realistic and informative take on small business tax planning
NFIB is a member-driven organization advocating on behalf of small and independent businesses nationwide.