No ‘gotcha’ enforcement of BOI regulations, FinCEN chief vows

Written on Feb 23, 2024

Journal of Accountancy

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will not use "gotcha enforcement actions" against small businesses when it finds errors in reports of beneficial ownership information (BOI), the network's director told a congressional committee on Wednesday.

"The statute is very clear that we can only take enforcement action against willful violations," FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki told the House Committee on Financial Services. "This is not about punishing small businesses but looking for those actors that are willfully evading the requirements."

As of Jan. 1, most companies created in or registered to do business in the United States must report information about their beneficial owners to FinCEN as part of an anti-money-laundering initiative enacted through the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), P.L. 116-283, in 2021. The requirement applies to an estimated 32.6 million companies, FinCEN officials have said, with about 5 million initial reports filed annually after that.