In this video, attorney Brittany Ratelle (the "lawyer for creatives") breaks down the 2024 Corporate Transparency Act’s Beneficial Owner Information (BOI) reporting requirement administered by FinCEN. She explains that any formally registered LLC, corporation (C‑Corp or S‑Corp) may need to file a BOI report if an individual holds more than 25% ownership or control. The report must include the owner’s legal name, date of birth, residential and/or business address, a government‑issued ID, and the entity’s EIN/TIN. Existing entities have until Jan 1 2025 to file, while newly formed entities have 90 days after formation (later reduced to 30 days in 2025). Failure to file can result in fines of $500 per day and up to two years of imprisonment. Ratelle debunks common myths: not every owner must file, the information required is standard and only accessed by government and law‑enforcement, filing is free and does not require a paid third‑party service, and there is a grace period rather than an immediate deadline. She advises business owners to prepare documents early, calendar the filing window, and avoid scams promising paid filing services. The video concludes with a free guide offer and encouragement to stay compliant.
Chapters
Are you a business owner? Don't miss this brand new reporting requirement for 2024, because if you do, you can face $500 a day fines or even jail time. Yikes. I'm lawyer for creators Brittany Ratelle, and I'm going to separate the facts from the myths about this new FinCEN business reporting requirement for next year and make sure you have all the information you need to file and to not be scammed. Let's get into it. Remember, while I'm an attorney, I'm not your attorney. However, this video is meant to be helpful so that you can have the information you need to move forward and be protected in your online business. So So next year there is a new Corporate Transparency Act that is requiring a new BOI or Business Owner Information Report from all established companies. Let me translate for you. What does this mean? That means if you have taken the steps to formally register your business, meaning that you have a limited liability company or an LLC or a corporation, whether that's a C-Corp or an S-Corp, and you have established these and registered these in your state, then you are likely subject to this new reporting requirement. So why does the government want this information? Well, allegedly it's to help prevent financial crimes and to provide more transparency about who are the decision makers and people in control of certain money as it's moving through companies. You might not know this, but the US actually makes it very easy to establish companies, including shell companies or scam companies or companies that may be doing shady things with money. So this act is supposed to help tighten that up so that there's a better record keeping and to know who is actually behind certain businesses. Now there's going to be a lot of hubbub and people are going to make this out a lot more complicated than it is. Because they're trying to sell you something. But I'm going to give it to you straight and tell you this is not a big deal as long as you fit the requirements and make sure that you take action in the right time frame. Here's what's going down. As of January 1, 2024, if you have an existing LLC or corporation, then you need to file your BOI, or Business Owner Information Report, at finCEN.gov. In this information report, you're going to have to provide things like your legal name, your date of birth, your address if you have a residential address and/or your business address, and you're going to have to provide some sort of government ID. This would match any requirements that you have for voting or doing any kind of banking procedure where they want to have that extra level of government-level security to make sure you are who you say you are. And the last step is going to be your EIN or TIN, which is like your tax ID number or otherwise your business entity number. You're going to collect all these things together, you're going to log on to the portal, and you're going to fill out this information. Now, who has to fill out this information? Anyone who is the beneficial owner of a company, and this means someone who has more than 25% control. So if you're a really small minority partner, maybe you're like the silent money investor, or maybe you're an advisor, or there's some other smaller minority part where you're not probably involved with the day-to-day decisions, you may not have to report this information. However, this is a big however, the fines for this are no joke. Meaning if you don't file this in the time period, you could face fines of $500 a day or jail time for up to 2 years. I don't think they're going to be going after a lot of small mom-and-pop businesses. But could you have drama in your life? Could you have unnecessary paperwork or fines? Absolutely. So I think that you should err on the side of caution. Let's talk about the timing of this. Like I said, this portal and reporting requirement doesn't go live until January 1st, 2024. In fact, you can't even file this report right now. If you try to be an early bird, it's not an option, but you can get all these documents ready. You can add this to your calendar, and as of January 1st, this should open up on the FinCEN website and you should be able to file. If you have an existing LLC or corporation right now, and the time of this recording, this video is 2023, you have 1 year until January 1st, 2025 in in order to file this new BOI, or Beneficial Owner Information Report. One whole year, that's going to be plenty of time. Now, do I recommend that you wait until the buzzer, to the last minute? No, not a good strategy, especially if you have to coordinate with other people. Now, if you have not set up your LLC, first of all, what are you waiting for, right? Watch some of my other amazing videos that I teach you about why you might want an LLC, and then come back to this. So if you've not set up your LLC but this is on your list for 2024, congrats, good for you, and you will have 90 days from the time that your formation is late when you are registered or incorporated to be able to report this. If you're an existing LLC right now, good job, you've got till the end of the year. Now the next year in 2025, that window is going to shorten down to 30 days. And that's the law right now. That regulation or rule could change, but as of December 1st, that's the most updated that's been given from FinCEN. So what are some of the myths that are going on online about this? One of the myths I've seen going around is every business owner needs to file this. Like we already talked about, that may or may not be the case. If you're not a majority owner, you might not have to file this. If you don't have substantial control over a company, you might not have to file this. If you're a sole proprietor or DBA, if you're kind of like one of those informal business entities, then you won't have to file this. But go ahead and check the list at FinCEN to be sure. Another myth going around is you have to give all the super secret information to the government. Don't do it. Like we talked about, the information that you're giving is not all that weird, and it's actually really normal, and it's the same kind of information you're going to give to like Stripe and Shopify to set up your payment processing. The only people are going to be able to access this list at FinCEN are government and law enforcement agencies. We're not going to be selling this list to a bunch of marketers and scammers. Next myth is you should pay somebody to do this for you. Absolutely not. If you like spending your money that way and you want to pay your CPA or lawyer to do it, I'm sure they will charge you, but you don't have to. It's going to be filling out a form. I would not waste money on this because you don't have to hire a company. This report is free. You can file your information for free. They will receive it for free. You are done. Free 99. Don't let anyone hustle you or scam you into paying money that you don't need to pay. And then the last one is you have to file right away or be fine. Like we talked about, you do have a period of time, right? 1 year if you already have an existing LLC or corporation, 90 days if you are forming one next year, and then in the next year, 2025, you're going to have 30 days. So don't wait forever. Make sure it's on your list, it's on your calendar and to-do, because it's not going to be the most fun. Treat yourself with something fun, go order your favorite drink from Starbucks and get it done and move on with your life and your business. Thank you so much for staying till the end of this video. I hope this has been helpful for you. If you are like, this sounds great, Brit, but I want to know links and more specifics, I have a free fun clients guide for you. If you want more support and knowing what exactly should be on your business to-do list for next year and other important things, make sure you're sitting in that business ownership seat and own your business. Thanks so much for being here. I'm the lawyer for creatives, Brittany Ratelle, and we'll catch you on the flip side.
