Client Alert: Corporate Transparency Act Filings Are Due by December 31, 2024

Client Alerts / October 2024

The CTA requires all entities to submit information about the business itself (such as EINs) as well as personal information of all the company’s “Beneficial Owners” (corroborated with a personal document such as a driver’s license or passport). Beneficial Owners are individuals who directly or indirectly hold 25% or more of a company’s equity and those who exercise substantial control over the entity, such as officers, directors, or managers.

There are limited exemptions available that allow a company to avoid filing with FinCEN if it meets certain qualifications.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Failure to comply with the CTA can result in severe penalties, including:

  • Civil fines of up to $500+ per day for non-compliance.
  • Criminal penalties, including fines of up to $10,000 and/or up to two years of imprisonment.

Note that this is a new statutory requirement and we have no historical experience to understand how or to what extent FinCEN will impose such penalties.

We’re Here to Help!

If you require our assistance with the filing process, please notify your attorney contact at CH& or the CTA Compliance Team at ctacompliance@cairncross.com before Friday, November 15, 2024. When you reach out, please make sure to include the FinCEN ID for each Beneficial Owner, which you can create at this link (https://fincen.gov/boi) by clicking “Create a FinCEN” in the box marked “File” near the top of the web page. Please also provide us with all other required information for filing (which can also be found on the website above).

Please note, due to the substantial volume of requests, we will not be able to accommodate incomplete submissions or those received after November 15, 2024. If we do not hear from you by the deadline, we will assume that you are managing the filing independently.