BOI Reporting Rule Remains On Hold Despite Supreme Court Order

The confusion continues over the Corporate Transparency Act, a law that mandates that certain businesses must file beneficial ownership information with the federal government.

In late December, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its own ruling from earlier in the week that opened the door for renewed enforcement of the CTA. That decision again temporarily suspended the requirement to file BOI information for all companies nationwide.

The Justice Department appealed the later Fifth Circuit decision, both at the circuit level and to the emergency docket of the Supreme Court.

On January 23, as reported by SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court “put on hold an order by a federal trial judge in Texas that would have barred the government from enforcing the law anywhere in the United States,” thereby granting the DOJ’s request to be allowed to enforce the reporting provisions of the CTA while its appeal moves forward in the Fifth Circuit. 

However, a separate injunction was issued on January 7 in a different lawsuit challenging the law, so the Treasury Department is still suspending enforcement of the reporting requirement. Its Beneficial Ownership Information homepage was updated on January 24 with the following message:

“In light of a recent federal court order, reporting companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN and are not subject to liability if they fail to do so while the order remains in force. However, reporting companies may continue to voluntarily submit beneficial ownership information reports.”

This means that although the Supreme Court has opened the door for renewed enforcement, the Treasury Department is not pursuing enforcement while the lower courts work through pending lawsuits. Small business owners can still choose not to file for now, but they may be pressed to file quickly based on future court rulings.

Congress may act before the courts resolve the issue, though, as Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., have reintroduced the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act aimed at overturning the Corporate Transparency Act. The bill was introduced in 2024 but stalled in committee in both houses.

For questions or suggestions on regulatory or government affairs issues, please contact Rachel Zoch at RachelZ@ppai.org.