In a letter to Congressional leadership of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) expressed concerns with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement that went into effect on January 1, 2024.
“We are now 50 days away from the filing deadline and the AICPA has grave concerns with the current timeline,” said Barry Melancon, AICPA CEO, in the letter. “The [deadline] for most existing small businesses must be delayed or this country will see millions of small business owners become accidentally and unknowingly delinquent in their compliance.”
According to the AICPA, there is a worrisome lack of awareness surrounding the reporting requirements for BOI and they have raised these concerns about the complexities around the rule with FinCEN. Among these concerns are what the AICPA refers to as an “unnecessarily tight 30-day timeline for report amendments and changes,” adding that the timeline makes monitoring client information incredibly complex for tax professionals who would ordinarily catch changes and updates during their annual client meetings prior to their clients’ annual tax filing. The AICPA also noted additional complexities with staggered delays due to natural disasters.
‘Small businesses should have a reasonable chance at compliance,” continued the letter. “There is still a lack of clarity and unanswered questions about the reporting requirements which has held small businesses back from filing… To ensure small businesses remain above board with federal laws and regulations, we believe the rule should be suspended for at least a year so the small business community can become better informed of their filing requirement.”
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Tags: Accounting, Financial Reporting
