UPDATE received after going to press: FINCEN issued new guidance extending the filing deadline from January 1, 2025 to January 13, 2025.
On Dec. 23, The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on the injunction issued earlier this month, which means that now the Dec. 31, 2024 filing requirement is back in effect and businesses must file their BOI information by midnight Dec. 31, 2024.
Business owners with a filing obligation must provide their name, date of birth, address and a scan of their government-issued photo ID to FinCEN as part of their reporting obligations. Any time this information changes, updated information must be submitted to FinCEN’s database within 30 days.
Failure to file with FinCEN could lead to a criminal penalty of up to two years of jail time and civil fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
Business entities that were in existence as of December 31, 2023, have until January 1, 2025, to submit their report. Entities created during 2024 will have 90 days to submit their report, and entities created in 2025 and after will only receive 30 days to report. Businesses that dissolved in 2024 are also required to file. Generally, companies only have to file once unless something changes in the future such as the number of owners or address of the business or its owners.
According to FinCen, such information will “permit federal, state, local and tribal officials, we well as certain foreign officials who submit a requested through a U.S. federal government agency, to obtain beneficial ownership information for authorized activities related to national security, intelligence, and law enforcement.”
Visit www.fincen.gov/boi for more information, including guidance for small businesses and a small business compliance toolkit.
