Business Community Asks Treasury Secretary To Pause Corporate Transparency Act Implementation

Last week, the Metals Service Center Institute and dozens of other organizations wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asking that he pause the Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) reporting requirements while a nationwide court order remains in place. The letter also asked the secretary to administratively extend the CTA filing deadline until at least Jan. 1, 2026.

Why? As the letter argued, “Despite its unprecedented scope, the CTA will be of little practical use to law enforcement, as criminals are unlikely to self-report their information to FinCEN. The brunt of its reporting burdens and excessive penalties will be shouldered by law-abiding Main Street businesses instead.”

The letter, available at this link, also noted, “Lack of awareness of the CTA’s reporting requirements has not helped. Despite massive public awareness campaigns by the groups represented here, as of December 1, 2024 — just one month before a year-end deadline — FinCEN had received less than 30 percent of the required filings. Had the courts not intervened, tens of millions of business owners would have been out of compliance and at risk of felony prosecutions.”

As a reminder, the CTA requires every U.S. business entity with fewer than 20 employees or $5 million in revenues to file a report with the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identifying and providing information about the owners of the business. While the law is intended to crack down on money laundering, it is was written so broadly that its requirements will ensnare more than 32 million small businesses.