The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published a guide to help small businesses comply with the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule.
Starting on Jan. 1 2024, many businesses in the United States will be required to report information about their beneficial owners to FinCEN. Beneficial owners are the individuals who ultimately own or control a company,
Chiefly, FinCen’s Small Entity Compliance Guide helps businesses determine if they are required to report their beneficial ownership information to FinCEN, and explains the rule in detail.
“This guide is the latest in our ongoing efforts to educate the public about these important new requirements,” Andrea Gacki, director of FinCEN, said. “We are committed to making this process as simple as possible, particularly for small businesses.”
Specifically, the guide describes each of the BOI reporting rule’s provisions in simple, easy-to-read language and answers key questions. Further, it provides interactive checklists, infographics, and other tools to assist businesses in complying with the BOI reporting rule.
“This is also a critical step towards implementing the Corporate Transparency Act, which will help the Treasury Department and FinCEN expose bad actors abusing the U.S. financial system by hiding their identity behind opaque corporate structures,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said.
Companies will be able to begin reporting beneficial ownership information to FinCEN on Ja. 1, when the rule goes into effect.
In the coming weeks, FinCEN will provide additional guidance on how to submit beneficial ownership information.