A decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas reinstated the filing requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act.

Businesses subject to the filing requirement will have to file their Beneficial Ownership Information with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) by March 21.

The Corporate Transparency Act of 2021 requires businesses to register any “beneficial owner” of a company in an effort to combat money laundering. Many farms are structured as either a c-corporation, s-corporation or limited liability company (LLC), which are now required to be registered if they employ fewer than 20 employees or receive under $5 million in cash receipts. That covers the vast majority of farms.

Filings must include all personal information such as addresses, birthdays and identification numbers for each owner. While this report does not have to be renewed after the initial filing, changes of address, new driver’s licenses or changes of name all require updated filings. Since having control over a business’ operations qualifies as beneficial ownership, a restructuring of job duties, even if the person does not have a legal ownership stake in the company, could also trigger requirements to file updates.

The penalties for not filing by the deadline are steep, including potential prison time.

Businesses that fail to file, or do not update records when needed, could face criminal fines up to $10,000 and additional civil penalties of up to $591 per day. Failure to file could also lead to felony charges and up to two years in prison.

The online portal created by FinCEN for businesses to file their Beneficial Ownership Information can be found here.

Additional information
View the FinCEN FAQs about the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting rule.

View the FinCEN Small Entity Compliance Guide.