NFIB member Sam Pfister, owner of Rise Strength & Performance in Lebanon, writes in the Jan. 3 edition of The Tennessean that Congress needs to repeal a new federal mandate requiring small businesses to file personal information about all “beneficial owners” or face fines and potentially two years in prison.

As the owner of a small gym and fitness center in Wilson County, I see overweight adults come to us looking for strength training and weight loss on a regular basis.

After an assessment, we build a personalized plan that works for them. What we don’t do is overburden them and throw on heavy weights and do endless squats.

Unfortunately, our federal government isn’t interested in assessing how things are for small businesses like mine. Instead, the government continues to add heavy weights to small businesses’ barbells.

An example is the new Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) small business registry from the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

This new mandate, which has very confusing and burdensome rules, requires small businesses with fewer than 20 employees and less than $5 million in profits to register with the federal government in a massive new government database.

The reporting rules require senior officers with at least 25% ownership in the business but also individuals who have “substantial control” over decisions in the business to register. Does this include managers? Probably, but it’s grey. What isn’t grey is that every time an officer or manager comes or goes or any information changes, it’s time to fill out new paperwork. That’s $500-$1,000 in more fees to lawyers and CPA’s to quench the thirsty federal bureaucracy.