Corporate transparency act blocked nationwide

[John Underwood]

Procrastination can pay off. 

This was on my to do list.

See article below:

Corporate Transparency Act Blocked Nationwide by Texas Court

[Greg Scott]

Keep in mind this is a TEMPORARY injunction.  The ruling may be overturned.

I do hope that this act is struck down.  They made it sound like it was something easy to comply with, but if anyone who is a beneficial owner has their ID expire or they move, you have 30 days to re-submit the paperwork.  If you forget, you face massive fines.

In a small partnership, you might be redoing this paperwork quite frequently.

[John Underwood]

Quote from @Greg Scott:

Keep in mind this is a TEMPORARY injunction.  The ruling may be overturned.

I do hope that this act is struck down.  They made it sound like it was something easy to comply with, but if anyone who is a beneficial owner has their ID expire or they move, you have 30 days to re-submit the paperwork.  If you forget, you face massive fines.

In a small partnership, you might be redoing this paperwork quite frequently.

  The Temporary injunction could be made permanent by the new Administration. Not sure what Trumps's stance on this would be, but he is a businessman so I think he would likely do away with this requirement.

[Greg Scott]

Quote from @John Underwood:

Quote from @Greg Scott:

Keep in mind this is a TEMPORARY injunction.  The ruling may be overturned.

I do hope that this act is struck down.  They made it sound like it was something easy to comply with, but if anyone who is a beneficial owner has their ID expire or they move, you have 30 days to re-submit the paperwork.  If you forget, you face massive fines.

In a small partnership, you might be redoing this paperwork quite frequently.

  The Temporary injunction could be made permanent by the new Administration. Not sure what Trumps's stance on this would be, but he is a businessman so I think he would likely do away with this requirement.

This law was signed by Trump.  He wanted to veto the CTA, but it was part of a large package of bills, so he could not kill it without killing the others.  It cannot be killed by executive decree.  The law must either be quashed by the court or reversed by the legislature.

[Mike Grudzien]

John Underwood: thanks for the timely update from another procrastinator....
Mike

[Patricia Andriolo-Bull]

Thanks for sharing.  I completed this a few months back but never got anything to prove it (other than the screen print showing filing successful) so I've been a bit worried by it.  While I have the screen print, what worries me is that it provides no information (unlike other filings) to show that I actually filed for my business and that it was correct.  Hoping it remains quashed.

[Ricky A.]

I guess my procrastination skills are slipping!  I just did all but one of mine on Monday.  I had purposefully waited as long as I could in case it was blocked, but I figured chances were slim at this point.  Oh well.

However, if it does come back, what I found was that creating the optional "Individual" FinCEN ID makes things a lot easier.  Instead of having to enter personal info and upload an image of your driver's license for each Reporting Company, the Individual FinCEN ID allows you to input your personal data once and then link the Individual ID to your various Reporting Companies.  If your personal info changes in the future, you just update it for the one Individual ID versus having to update it in each of your Reporting Companies.  Also makes it easy for each individual to maintain their own info in multi-owner scenarios.

@Patricia Andriolo-Bull, not sure if they've iterated the system since you did yours, but now there's a button for downloading the filing transcript (a PDF containing all the info that you submitted).  But I wouldn't worry as long as your filings said successful.  

[Patricia Andriolo-Bull]

Quote from @Ricky A.:

I guess my procrastination skills are slipping!  I just did all but one of mine on Monday.  I had purposefully waited as long as I could in case it was blocked, but I figured chances were slim at this point.  Oh well.

However, if it does come back, what I found was that creating the optional "Individual" FinCEN ID makes things a lot easier.  Instead of having to enter personal info and upload an image of your driver's license for each Reporting Company, the Individual FinCEN ID allows you to input your personal data once and then link the Individual ID to your various Reporting Companies.  If your personal info changes in the future, you just update it for the one Individual ID versus having to update it in each of your Reporting Companies.  Also makes it easy for each individual to maintain their own info in multi-owner scenarios.

@Patricia Andriolo-Bull, not sure if they've iterated the system since you did yours, but now there's a button for downloading the filing transcript (a PDF containing all the info that you submitted).  But I wouldn't worry as long as your filings said successful.  

 That's good to know...that definitely wasn't there before.  I could go look up my transaction but I guess it would be a waste now :) 

[Srini Murthy]

I am a procrastinator too!! However my incorporation company is pressing me to do the CTA. I hear people here say it is temporary? How long do we have before we may have to file?

[John Underwood]

Likely this will be tied up in court for a while.

Then I would guess they would give everyone time to do it.

If they win their challenge then you would never have to do it.

[Zach Rothman]

Sorry guys, I didn't really understand what this is about. Could someone summarize what it is and what the impacts could be?

[Brandon Weis]

Very glad this happened after we submitted these for over 40 businesses last week!!

[Nathan Hunnicutt]

Quote from @Greg Scott:

Keep in mind this is a TEMPORARY injunction.  The ruling may be overturned.

I do hope that this act is struck down.  They made it sound like it was something easy to comply with, but if anyone who is a beneficial owner has their ID expire or they move, you have 30 days to re-submit the paperwork.  If you forget, you face massive fines.

In a small partnership, you might be redoing this paperwork quite frequently.

 Do you have a prediction?

[Greg Scott]

Quote from @Nathan Hunnicutt:

Quote from @Greg Scott:

Keep in mind this is a TEMPORARY injunction.  The ruling may be overturned.

I do hope that this act is struck down.  They made it sound like it was something easy to comply with, but if anyone who is a beneficial owner has their ID expire or they move, you have 30 days to re-submit the paperwork.  If you forget, you face massive fines.

In a small partnership, you might be redoing this paperwork quite frequently.

 Do you have a prediction?

I predict it will be hung up in the court for 2 years then reinstated.  After that time, some mom & pop ice cream stand owner will be fined $50,000 by the law for not updating the FinCen after their driver license expired.  It will destroy them. People will start to realize that a law designed to protect against criminal international money laundering captures more innocents than anything.  The guilty people know how to hide their tracks and could have been arrested under previous laws anyway, so all CTA law did was persecute small business owners.  The entire fiasco will create a media circus and a go-fund-me campaign for the poor couple damaged by this stupid law. Then and only then will congress kill this idiotic legislation.

[Marcus Auerbach]

Getting a FincenID makes it easy if you have more than one or expect future updates. 

I don't quite understand the pushback. 

It blows my mind that you can actually start and operate a legitimate business in the US without telling the government (not the public) the name and address of the owner. I mean, how shady is it to object to that? Do you object to giving them DMV your address Or your bank?

[Nathan Hunnicutt]

Quote from @Greg Scott:

Quote from @Nathan Hunnicutt:

Quote from @Greg Scott:

Keep in mind this is a TEMPORARY injunction.  The ruling may be overturned.

I do hope that this act is struck down.  They made it sound like it was something easy to comply with, but if anyone who is a beneficial owner has their ID expire or they move, you have 30 days to re-submit the paperwork.  If you forget, you face massive fines.

In a small partnership, you might be redoing this paperwork quite frequently.

 Do you have a prediction?

I predict it will be hung up in the court for 2 years then reinstated.  After that time, some mom & pop ice cream stand owner will be fined $50,000 by the law for not updating the FinCen after their driver license expired.  It will destroy them. People will start to realize that a law designed to protect against criminal international money laundering captures more innocents than anything.  The guilty people know how to hide their tracks and could have been arrested under previous laws anyway, so all CTA law did was persecute small business owners.  The entire fiasco will create a media circus and a go-fund-me campaign for the poor couple damaged by this stupid law. Then and only then will congress kill this idiotic legislation.

Your prediction reminds me of a four-digit number: 1776

[Camille T.]

@Marcus Auerbach the issue and objection is Federal overreach.  Corporate transparency is already regulated at the state level.  

[Bonnie Griffin Kaake]

Quote from @Marcus Auerbach:

Getting a FincenID makes it easy if you have more than one or expect future updates. 

I don't quite understand the pushback. 

It blows my mind that you can actually start and operate a legitimate business in the US without telling the government (not the public) the name and address of the owner. I mean, how shady is it to object to that? Do you object to giving them DMV your address Or your bank?

I understand some of the issues and I believe those can be adjusted to be sure we are not penalizing some of the small investors. On the other hand, if you ever had a spouse or ex-spouse who was hiding assets in LLCs you might understand the need for more transparency in these transactions. Then again, maybe that is why some investors don't want this level of transparency.

I am not sure what state @Camille T. lives in but I don't know of a state that currently has this level of transparency. Years ago as a commercial RE broker, I once had a client try to close on a commercial property using cash. He had to go to a bank and get a cashiers check. The title company would not accept cash. Money laundering is a big concern and needs to be addressed. 

[Greg Scott]

Quote from @Marcus Auerbach:

Getting a FincenID makes it easy if you have more than one or expect future updates. 

I don't quite understand the pushback. 

It blows my mind that you can actually start and operate a legitimate business in the US without telling the government (not the public) the name and address of the owner. I mean, how shady is it to object to that? Do you object to giving them DMV your address Or your bank?

A FincenID doesn't solve the problem for many entities. 

For example, we have a friend with an LLC with four beneficial owners. It makes their life easier if all of the owners get a FincenID because then they are not constantly updating for expired driver licenses. However, if the beneficial owner does not update thier FincenID the entity is the one at risk of being fined, not the errant FincenID holder.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Zach Rothman:

Sorry guys, I didn't really understand what this is about. Could someone summarize what it is and what the impacts could be?

The official answer: The Corporate Transparency Act is intended to provide law enforcement with beneficial ownership information for the purpose of detecting, preventing and punishing terrorism, money laundering and other misconduct through business entities.

Uncle Sugar requires us little guys to register and be tracked even though 99.999% of us are not involved in terrorism, money laundering, or other misconduct. Meanwhile, our current President is shuffling communist funds through shell companies. Or what about the foreign and criminal funds funneled into the DNC through ActBlue?

I hope the new administration will put an end to this nonsense and focus on going after criminals again.

[Andrew Steffens]

LOL I did this last week for 8 LLCs :/