BOI Report Paused Indefinitely By Texas Judge
With less than a month until the deadline, the Corporate Transparency Act has been declared optional by the Texas District Court.
Procrastinators rejoice! If you haven’t yet filed your Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report, you may not have to. Thanks to the small business owners and privacy-minded Plaintiffs in Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc., et al. v. Garland, et al., there is a national injunction (or legal restraint) on the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA.)
The CTA was initially passed by Congress in 2021. It required reporting companies to submit private information on the business’s beneficial owners and company applicants. Though there were 23 exemptions, most small businesses operating in the nation were required to give identifying information on the people who owned, controlled, or influenced the company.
The Court ruled that legally forcing companies to submit sensitive information to the federal government could reasonably cause harm to the businesses. More importantly, the Court agreed with the Plaintiffs’ belief that it would violate their constitutional rights. According to the federal court, due to the fact that the CTA “seems to only regulate an entity’s existence”, the CTA “is likely unconstitutional as outside of Congress’s power.”
“The Court has effectively stripped the teeth out of the law,” Northwest’s In-House Counsel, Andrew Corsberg, says before adding a warning: “But the law still has gums.”
In other words: the injunction is on the enforcement of requirement, meaning there is no obligation to file right now. But the CTA itself is not dismantled, just temporarily disarmed. Though the CTA is paused nationwide, there is a chance that another Federal Court interprets the CTA differently, creating even greater confusion. Congress itself could even amend the CTA, effectively nullifying the recent court decision. If this happens, businesses may need to file their BOI Report.
As a company that practices Privacy by Default®, Northwest Registered Agent has long thought of the BOI report as an unnecessary, redundant burden for business owners, as you cannot really transact business in the US without an Employer Identification Number (EIN) that is obtained through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Through EINs and tax returns, the US government already possesses business owners’ information.
However, Northwest will continue offering a $25 BOI service to those who would prefer to file the report and never think about it again. For those who are waiting to see how Congress responds to the District Court’s injunction, Northwest will keep watch and update business owners as the information rolls in.
For more information on the Court’s ruling, you can check out the preliminary injunction for Case No. 4:24-cv-478 (E.D. Tex.).
About Northwest Registered Agent:
Northwest Registered Agent LLC was founded in 1998 to provide registered agent and business filing services to companies across the U.S. From being the first registered agent to locally deliver all client’s documents in real-time to offering low monthly payments, Northwest Registered Agent LLC is always at the forefront of innovation in the industry.
