Hopefully you haven’t had any contact with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) up to now. But starting at the beginning of 2024, certain types of corporations registered to do business in the U.S. – including many retail stores – are required to report the information about their “beneficial owners” to FinCEN by the end of the year. 

What is a beneficial owner? It’s a bit of an odd term in our world, but it refers to the person or persons who ultimately own or control a company.  The “beneficial” part means that this is who actually stands to gain from business activities.

According to the FinCEN, the new filing requirement came about because Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act in 2021. “This law creates a new beneficial ownership information reporting requirement as part of the U.S. government’s efforts to make it harder for bad actors to hide or benefit from their ill-gotten gains through shell companies or other opaque ownership structures.”  (You have to love the fact that the government’s official page uses the term ‘bad actors.’)

If you haven’t come across the requirement for a Beneficial Ownership Information Report, it would be wise to take time to make sure yours is done. The deadline is January 1st, 2025. Failure to file before this deadline could result in penalties of up to $592 per day.

Fortunately, you can do your own BOI filing online through the e-filing system, which allows for the electronic filing of the BOIR under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). There is even a YouTube video – of course – that walks you through the process in less than five minutes.  I’ve done our filing, and found it pretty painless. Best not to procrastinate!

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder