New for 2024: Required Beneficial Ownership Information Filing

Starting January 1, 2024, most new and existing companies are required to file a beneficial ownership information report with the US Department of Treasury. Read the official press release here.

We are seeing a lot of misinformation about this new requirement and also some scams, so this is what you need to know:

1. Most companies (including LLCs and corporations) have to file this new BOI report.

2. There are 23 exemptions, so you can check to see if your business falls under one of those here (Section C2). Most of our clients’ businesses will not be exempt.

3. This is where you can find the form: https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/

4. If your company existed prior to 1/1/24, you have until 1/1/25 to file.

5. If you open your company after 1/1/24, you have 90 days from set-up to file.

6. If you open your company after 1/1/25, you will have 30 days to file.

7. There is no fee to submit the report, but there are $$ penalties if you do not file it.

8. You can complete the form yourself.

9. You will need to upload photo IDs of all parties with an ownership interest in your business, so be sure you have those readily accessible.

10. We filed the one for our firm, and it took about 10 minutes. The filing program has some glitches, so companies who existed before 1/1/24 may want to calendar to do it in a month or two to give them time to iron out the kinks.

11. FinCEN (the agency enforcing this) will not send an email for you to click a link or scan a QR Code. Those are fraudulent emails that typically say something like “Important Compliance Notice.”