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UPDATE – January 3rd: The U.S. Supreme Court has engaged with DOJ’s request to stay the injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act.
Justice Alito has established a 4 p.m. deadline on January 10, 2025, for the plaintiffs in Texas Top Cop Shop to respond to the Department of Justice’s motion for a stay. This timeline suggests the Supreme Court is moving quickly to decide whether to reinstate BOI reporting requirements by suspending the preliminary injunction currently blocking enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).
Late on New Year’s Eve, the U.S. Solicitor General on behalf of FinCEN filed an emergency application for a “Stay” on the injunction issued by the District Court in the Texas Top Cop Shop v. Garland case.
This means that at any time, the U.S. Supreme Court could choose to overturn the current injunction that makes Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting (BOIR) filing voluntary. If this occurs, similar to the roller-coaster that occurred on December 23rd when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put a stay on the injunction – the BOIR could once again become mandatory, with an imminent due date for entities formed prior to 2024 (although FinCEN would likely provide a short filing extension to at least January 13th in that eventuality).
Given all of this uncertainly, the two primary paths forward continue to be as follows:
- Prepare to file your BOIR at a moment’s notice – pending further legal resolution of this high-stakes filing requirement, with the legal system poised to reinstitute the filing requirement at any time.
- File your BOIR voluntarily – ensuring compliance now avoids the crazy roller-coaster with seemingly constant legal developments, combined with last-minute filing stress and possible civil and criminal penalty exposure for missing a filing window.
Ultimately, this reporting requirement is high-stakes, with onerous penalties that include civil fines of up to $591 per day, and criminal fines of up to $10,000 per report paired with up to two years of imprisonment. As such, if you choose to wait to file your BOIR, it is imperative that you monitor this legal battle for future daily developments, and are positioned to file at a moment’s notice.
