PHOENIX (July 10, 2025) – Josh McLeod, Director of Federal Government Relations at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business trade association, recently appeared on “Business for Breakfast” where he discussed why the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement must be repealed.

CLICK HERE to listen to the full conversation. Excerpts are below.

When discussing the BOI reporting requirement, McLeod highlighted the penalties small business owners could face if they fail to comply.

“The penalties are up to a $10,000 fine and two years in prison,” McLeod said. “Pretty crazy when you think about what could be falling on small business owners. When we surveyed our members, 83% had never heard of this requirement. If President Trump had not stepped in and provided relief, there could have been massive pain at the beginning of this year.”

For those small business owners who are aware of the new mandate, they’re concerned about their private information, McLeod said.

“The concerns from a lot of small business owners is, their information will now be on this brand new database at FinCEN, which is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is a part of the Treasury,” McLeod said. “That’s their law enforcement side of the agency, and they have a whole lot of authority under this new law and requirement. The concerning part about it is, local, state, federal, and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies can access this database at FinCEN without a warrant. And so there is a privacy element that small businesses fear for their personal information.”

Background:

Millions of small businesses were previously subject to a law, the Corporate Transparency Act, which required them to report the personally identifiable information of each beneficial owner to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

If not fully repealed or ruled unconstitutional, 32 million small businesses nationwide could be subjected to this unnecessary mandate again. Those who fail to comply would be subject to criminal and civil penalties of up to two years in federal prison and up to $10,000.

NFIB has consistently opposed this law and is working to permanently block and repeal it in the federal courts and Congress. NFIB supports H.R. 8147 and S. 4297, Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act.