RICHMOND, Va. — Some small business owners now have an extra two weeks to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report with the government, otherwise facing a hefty fine.
“If you form an LLC, nobody knows who the members of the LLC are,” said Jim Wilson, president of the Wilson Law Group in Richmond.
The purpose of the Corporate Transparency Act is to find out who those members are. The rule applies to roughly 32.6 million businesses, including certain corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), and other small businesses.
Impacted businesses typically file with the State Corporation Commission or Secretary of State when they first form their business.
The requirement was created to go after people committing financial crimes through LLCs.
“People are committing financial crimes,” Wilson said. “Financial crimes using these entities that nobody can find a person associated with. They just want to know who the people are in your business, what are their addresses, social security numbers, and date of birth.”