After several months of ping-ponging court decisions, corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) must file beneficial ownership information with the federal government by March 21. 

That’s the new deadline just issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. 

The reporting requirements were mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) enacted by Congress in 2021 to curb illicit finance. The initial deadline to file beneficial ownership information (BOI) with FinCEN was Jan. 1, but a Texas court issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily suspended enforcement. Since then, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lifted the injunction on Dec. 23, 2024, however, three days later a different panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an order vacating the court’s Dec. 23 order granting a stay of the preliminary injunction. 

Eventually the case when all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled on Jan. 23 that the government could indeed require the ownership information, though a separate nationwide injunction remained. Most recently, a decision Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas once again put the reporting requirements back in effect, according to the FinCEN website. 

The CTA required that all companies or LLCs “created in the United States by filing a document with a secretary of state or any similar office under the law of a state or Indian tribe or a foreign company registered to do business in any U.S. state or Indian tribe” before Jan. 1, 2024 file beneficial ownership information (BOI) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, now with the new deadline of March 21.  

If a company is created or registered in 2024, it must report BOI within 90 days after receiving actual or public notice that the company’s creation or registration is effective. For companies created or registered on or after Jan. 1, 2025, they must file BOI within 30 days after receiving actual or public notice that its creation or registration is effective. In addition, any updates or corrections to beneficial ownership information previously filed with FinCEN must be submitted within 30 days. 

Anyone who willfully violates the BOI reporting requirements may be subject to civil penalties of up to $591 for each day that the violation continues, with the civil penalty amount adjusted annually for inflation. A violator of the BOI reporting requirements may also be subject to criminal penalties of up to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000, according to FinCEN. Potential violations include willfully failing to file a BOI report, willfully filing false beneficial ownership information, or willfully failing to correct or update previously reported beneficial ownership information.  

Twenty-three types of entities are exempt from beneficial ownership information reporting requirements, including publicly traded companies, nonprofits and certain large operating companies, according to FinCEN. 

Last year, New York State adopted a similar law called the LLC Transparency Act which requires certain LLCs to disclose beneficial ownership information to the New York State Department of State. The state law doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2026, and LLCs formed or authorized to do business before that date have until Jan. 1, 2027 to make their initial filings. 

More information on the federal requirements can be found at fincen.gov/boi.