Good news for the lazy days of summer! The Trump Treasury Department has finalized its revised beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule and committed to permanently deleting the sensitive personal data prematurely collected from millions of U.S. business owners. This is a significant victory for Main Street and the latest chapter in our years-long fight against the Corporate Transparency Act.
Treasury estimates the rule will generate $9 billion in annual compliance savings. That’s a huge sum, but it doesn’t account for the funds Main Street businesses have already spent trying to decipher this unnecessary rule. This reply to S-Corp ally Carol Roth’s tweet summed up the frustration among business owners perfectly:
A big headline here is the database purge. FinCEN announced it will delete all BOI information previously collected from U.S. owners and entities – by our estimate that’s 15 million entities and who knows how many tens of millions of individuals. The move reflects a recognition of what we’ve argued from the start: requiring millions of law-abiding business owners to disclose their personal information serves no meaningful law enforcement purpose and exposes them to unnecessary costs and privacy risks.
Treasury’s action today is welcome news, but it’s not the end of the fight. The rule makes permanent the interim guidance issued last March, which narrowed reporting to foreign entities only. But that relief exists at the discretion of the White House and can be unwound by a future administration. That’s why the push for a permanent fix through a statutory repeal or a court order remains at the top of the to-do list.
For now, however, we’re celebrating the big “W.” Thanks to Treasury for getting the regs right, and we will continue to fight for permanent relief on behalf of the Main Street business community.