December 27, 2024
Things have changed again with the BOI. The whiplash – I know.
I just told you in this video yesterday the 5th circuit court of appeals ruled earlier this week that yes – if you own almost every type of business that operates in the United States – under a new law – you were required to file the BOI – beneficial ownership information. And that had to be done by January 13th – in just in a few weeks.
Well – late last night the 5th circuit court of appeals reversed its own decision. Wild. I know. The 5th circuit now says they want to pause their own ruling — so the parties in this case can argue whether the corporate transparency act which established the BOI is constitutional. The appeals court said in this latest order, they were doing this “to preserve the constitutional status quo while the merits panel considers the parties’ weighty substantive arguments…”
So do you file or not?
As of today – the courts say no. But as you can see the ruling changes minute by minute.
Look. As a journalist I cannot give you advice about what you should do. But what I can do is lay out what you need to weigh so you can decide for yourself whether it’s in your best interest to file or wait it out.
First – you can determine whether your business is one that would be required to file under the law. Generally, the law says if you had to file any sort of paperwork to create your business entity with your Secretary of State or an equivalent government agency, you likely do have to file. For the record – filing is free and takes like 10 minutes if you have a basic simple business structure. You can do that on fincen.gov/boi
Second — you need to weigh whether it’s going to be easier for you to follow all this legal drama all this back and forth to file or not to file or just file the information and forget about it. It’s possible in the end you won’t have to file it. But on the flip side — if the courts ultimately uphold this law the treasury department is going to reinstate a very quick BOI filing deadline that you’ll have to comply with. And if you don’t file you’ll rack up very hefty fines.
I have been reporting on this law and this BOI requirement for more than a year and I have a ton of resources available to help you and all the links you need to get the answers you need.
Read the 5th Circuit’s reversal here.
