BOI Injunction Reinstated, Reporting Paused Again

December 30, 2024

For business owners, monitoring the rules for BOI reporting this month has been like watching a ping pong match. Injunction

As of Friday, December 27, the requirement to file a beneficial ownership information (BOI) report has once again been paused, as the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals took another swing at the paddle and reinstated the nationwide injunction put into place by a district court earlier in December. This means that companies that have not yet filed their initial BOI reports are not required to do so pending further order of court.

This is an evolving matter, so businesses that choose not to file at this time should continue to monitor the situation and be prepared to file if the injunction is lifted.

Timeline of the Corporate Transparency Act:

The Corporate Transparency Act was enacted in 2021 to combat money laundering. Beginning in 2024, the law requires most businesses, including corporations, S corporations, LLCs, and more, to file BOI reports with FinCEN. The initial reporting deadline for businesses that were in existence prior to the start of the year was 12/31/2024.

On March 1, 2024, a district court in Alabama declared the CTA unconstitutional, which halted the filing requirement for the plaintiffs in that case. The decision has been appealed and the litigation is still pending. Throughout the year, several other lawsuits were filed across the country.

Less than 1 month before the initial deadline for most businesses, a district court in Texas issued a nationwide injunction against enforcement of the CTA on 12/3/2024.

On December 23, 2024, the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order lifting the injunction, which reinstated the filing requirement. In consideration of the three-week pause on the filing requirement, FinCEN extended the deadline from 12/31/24 to 1/13/2025 for most businesses.

Just a few days later, on December 26, 2024, a different panel of that same court vacated the Circuit Court’s prior order, which reinstated the nationwide injunction and once again paused the requirement for filing BOI reports pending further order of court.