Your 180-day plan for BOI reporting

This article was contributed by Thoropass Partner, FileForms.

Do you have a plan in place to ensure your compliance with the government?

Over the next approximately 180 days, a crucial period ending on January 1st, 2025, U.S. businesses and their advisors across the United States must diligently comply with the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). In fact, some newly formed businesses are already past their deadline. This new federal law, designed to prevent financial crime, requires businesses to disclose their Beneficial Owners’ information (BOI) to the government. The CTA, with its inherent complexities, also mandates submitting a Beneficial Ownership Information) report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). FileForms is here to help you navigate these new compliance measures, ensuring that your business and your clients stay on track — here is a plan for success and compliance across all entities you manage:

Does my business need to submit a BOI report?

Businesses that are required to submit a BOI report include corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), limited partnerships, and entities created by filing formation documents with a secretary of state. 

Both domestic and foreign reporting companies must submit a BOI report if they fall under the defined categories. Exempt entities, such as publicly traded companies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and non-profits, do not need to submit a BOI report. Industries that will likely need to report include retail, professional services, real estate, construction, technology, and wholesale trade businesses. Additionally, newly formed or registered companies in these industries, organized as specific entity types, are also expected to file a BOI report. Learn more about the types of businesses that are required to file a BOI report here.

For Business Owners and Executives – what to do in the next 90 days or sooner:

• Determine if the business(es) were formed or registered with the Secretary of State in 2024
  • If so, the BOI reporting deadline is within 90 days of the business formation date
• Have EIN tax identification number available, as it is required on the BOI report
  • Businesses that do not have, or cannot attain, an EIN can use an SSN/ITIN
• Beneficial Owners must confirm their photo ID or passport will not expire before filing
  • The BOI report requires an active, non-expired government ID number and photo
• Identify and communicate with all individuals that are Beneficial Owners
  • BOI Reporting Quick Reference Guide for more detail on Owners and Reporting Companies

For Business Advisors — how to best position your firm from now until January 1, 2025:

• Educate your clients over the next 90 days, as BOI reporting has received little attention
  • Give your clients enough time and education to learn about the CTA, BOI reporting, and gather the necessary information they need to complete the process
• Send educational content via monthly newsletters, email campaigns, mailers, and feature it prominently on your website
  • Engage with clients in the many ways they consume new information and stay up to date on changes that impact their business
• Have a solution in place to process the volumes of BOI reports
  • There will be a large amount of reports filed in a short amount of time in the last 90 days of the year

Given the nature of the BOI reporting being new, complex, and under-publicized, only two million out of 32.6 million reporting companies have filed thus far according to FinCEN. Business Advisors can help their clients by providing education in the near term to help prevent what seems to be an overwhelming amount of filing requests towards the end of the year.

FileForms can help provide all the educational resources, live events, and filing solutions needed to securely file directly with FinCEN using a state-of-the-art reporting platform. Whether you are interested in providing filing services for your clients directly or guiding them to a solution at your recommendation, we have you covered. Our team is dedicated to spreading awareness of the CTA and BOI reporting and can cater to you and your end clients to help make this new filing requirement quick and easy. Our easy-to-use technology solution is trusted by hundreds of business professionals who manage filings for large groups of businesses.

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