The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) recently published a toolkit to help familiarize small business owners with the beneficial ownership reporting requirements mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act. The law requires certain small businesses, including public, private and non-profit organizations, to provide the Federal Government with basic information about the people who ultimately own or control them. The toolkit is intended to make beneficial ownership reporting as easy as possible by including templates, sample content, general background on the reporting requirements, and information on how to contact FinCEN.
According to FinCEN, companies that existed before 2024 must report beneficial ownership information by January 1, 2025, while companies created or registered in 2024 have 90 days from the time that they receive a creation/registration notice to report the information. FinCEN also indicated that companies only need to provide this information once, unless the information provided to FinCEN needs to be updated or corrected.