WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 31, 2025) – NFIB Vice President of Federal Government Relations Jeff Brabant joined The Lars Larson Show to explain how Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements are burdening small businesses and why Congress needs to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). 

Listen to Brabant’s interview here. 

“So, if you’re a business with 20 or fewer employees – and this only applies to small businesses, those with 20 or fewer employees – what this regulation would do is say you have to prove to the government who your beneficial owners are. So, if you own more than 25% of the company, you have to file your personal contact information, your home address, your business address, a copy of your driver’s license, with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is the intelligence agency that investigates money laundering and financial crimes. And not only does it require the actual owners; it requires anyone who substantially controls the company, which is really loosely defined by FinCEN to even mean a general manager of a restaurant, who has zero percent ownership stake and is just a salaried employee would have to do it. So, any senior staff would have to do it. And the scary thing is, okay, I start a new business, I report my senior staff, what’s the big deal? It’s a lifetime commitment, and if you forget to update your information within 30 days of anything changing, you can go to jail for two years or get fined up to $10,000.” 

[…] 

“And the fact that you’re putting this many American small businesses at risk is terrifying for a lot of small businesses. And Lars, I know this is a really scary thing, but one thing I do want to point out is that earlier this spring, President Trump exempted American small businesses. He looked at this and said this is a terrible idea and to use his words from a social media post about this, he called them an ‘absolute disaster’ for small business and an ‘economic menace’ when he exempted small businesses. But we’re not out of the woods just because the president exempted American small businesses. This passed years and years ago on a defense bill… as part of a statute of the Corporate Transparency Act. And that’s still on the books. So, a future president, when Donald Trump’s not president one day, can come in and put it right back into effect so what we’re doing is saying to Congress, ‘Hey, just because President Trump saved us for the next three, four years, doesn’t mean we’re permanently out of the woods for 32 million American small businesses. You guys need to act, and you need to repeal this right away.’” 

For over six years, NFIB has fought against Beneficial Ownership Information reporting regulations in Congress, executive branch agencies, and the federal courts, working to permanently block and repeal it. If not fully repealed, 32 million small businesses nationwide could once again be subjected to this unnecessary, invasive, and unconstitutional mandate. 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. 

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For over 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.