Deadline and enforcement suspended pending development of new regulations.
There is yet another update regarding the continuing saga that is Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting. At the end of last week FinCEN announced they will extend the current March 21 BOI reporting deadline and suspend enforcement of BOI reporting requirements while they develop new regulations that will reduce the “regulatory burden” on small businesses. FinCEN has not yet announced a new deadline, but has said it will do so by March 21. FinCEN will not take any enforcement actions or issue any fines or penalties for failure to report or update BOI reports while it works on issuing an interim final rule that will have new due dates and requirements for which types of businesses need to file.
On the heels of this news the Treasury Department has announced that, with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act, not only will it not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the BOI reporting rule under the existing regulatory deadlines, it will also not enforce any penalties or fines against U.S. citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners after the forthcoming rule changes take effect. The Treasury Department will be issuing a proposed rulemaking that will narrow the scope of the rule to foreign reporting companies only.
What does all of this mean for you? Once again BOI reporting has become voluntary until FinCEN announces a new due date. However, even with a new due date forthcoming it appears it will remain voluntary for almost all U.S. owned businesses.
We do expect more guidance to be forthcoming regarding foreign owned businesses and will provide an update once that guidance is issued.