Deadline to File Initial BOI Report for Entities Created Prior to January 1, 2024
Filing Deadline Approaching for Many Legal Entities
If you own or control an entity, such as a limited liability company (“LLC”) or a corporation (but not limited to these), an informational report will need to be filed that, prior to January 1, 2024, was not required to be filed. This is a new requirement as of January 1, 2024.
Please be aware that these informational reports are NOT the Annual Reports that must be filed each year with the State of Florida Division of Corporations. No, this is a completely new requirement, and requires that a Beneficial Ownership Information (“BOI”) Report be filed with a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury known as The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCen”). The BOI Report is intended to provide information on the individuals who own and/or control the entities. A previous blog post went into more detail of the “what” behind the BOI reports; this is intended more to focus on the “when.”
If your entity was formed in 2024, you will have 90 days from the date of formation to file the initial BOI report. Beginning in 2025, new entities will have 30 days to file an initial BOI report. Note that the remainder of this blog post is not speaking to either of the foregoing situations and is speaking to entities that were created prior to January 1, 2024. This is because the law applies to such entities, even though they predate the law, meaning that there is no “grandfather” exception, and preexisting entities must comply. With that said, the deadline for compliance is different from entities that were created on or after January 1, 2024. Those entities have until January 1, 2025. However, because January 1 is a holiday, and because I always suggest avoiding waiting until the last minute, I’m recommending to everyone I speak with to ensure the initial report
As specified in the Corporate Transparency Act, a person who willfully violates the BOI reporting requirements may be subject to civil penalties of up to $500 for each day that the violation continues. However, this civil penalty amount is adjusted annually for inflation. As of the time of publication of this blog post, the amount is $591. Again, per day. Pretty steep.
We Can Help.
The initial BOI Report is not difficult to file, and so it should be fairly straightforward for most small businesses to comply. In fact, at the end of this post is a link you can follow that will provide you with all of the information you need to file the report on your own.
But if you find that you need assistance with filing the report, please don’t hesitate to contact us for assistance. Note that, because of the deadline, and because of the holidays, we will not accept any requests for assistance for BOI reporting after December 20, 2024.