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Congress Focused on CTA Flaws

With just six months to go before the Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) reporting requirements take effect, federal lawmakers are sounding the alarm over just how far reaching – and poorly constructed – the rules are.

A quick primer for those new to the issue: the CTA requires smaller businesses and other entities to annually report the personal information of their “beneficial owners” to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). According to FinCEN, “beneficial owner” includes individuals with at least a 25-percent stake in the business, as well as those who serve on the entity’s board, helped organize the entity,

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2023-10-04T16:39:35+00:00June 16, 2023|

Main Street Backs CTA Legal Challenge

This week, the Main Street business community voiced its support the National Small Business Association’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

The letter was signed by more than 45 trade associations, including the International Franchise Association, National Roofing Contractors Association, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and the Real Estate Roundtable. These trades represent businesses from every state and nearly every sector of the economy.

As the letter makes clear, the CTA is poorly constructed, overly burdensome, and threatens the owners of literally millions of small businesses across the country:

The CTA represents an unprecedented attempt by the

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2023-10-04T16:39:39+00:00December 7, 2022|

ENABLERS Targets Main Street, Not Oligarchs

A recent op-ed in the Washington Post has all the earmarks of blatant government overreach disguised as national security advocacy.  The op-ed, Congress is Letting International Money Launderers off the Hook supports the so-called ENABLERS Act and hits all the key words – “Putin,” “kleptocrat,” “ill-gotten gains,” “basic due diligence” – on the partisan FACT Coalition bingo card. What it fails to do is explain how the bill will make Americans safer or our financial system more secure.

The photo accompanying the story is a good example of just how badly the law will fail.  It shows the

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2023-10-04T16:39:44+00:00November 29, 2022|

The Corporate Transparency Act: Bad Policy and Unconstitutional

As we’ve observed previously, the Corporate Transparency Act is a poorly constructed bit of law. It will do little to combat money laundering as the criminals will simply refrain from self-reporting their crimes, but it will saddle millions of lawful small business owners with yet another reporting requirement as well as an opportunity to have their personal information spread all over the internet.

On Tuesday the National Small Business Association (NSBA) highlighted another reason to dislike the CTA: it’s unconstitutional. A lawsuit filed by the group in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama argues the

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2023-10-04T16:39:47+00:00November 18, 2022|

Senate Amendment Targets Private Businesses

The Senate this week will debate an amendment to require private companies to annually report the personal information of their owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the Department of Treasury, or face large fines and multi-year jail sentences.

The amendment — sponsored by Senate Banking Committee leaders Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – mirrors the Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 that passed the House last fall.  If it passes the Senate as part of this year’s Defense Authorization Act, it is very likely to become law.

The stated goal of the amendment is to crack

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2023-10-04T16:41:50+00:00June 28, 2020|