You may have heard about the chaos and confusion regarding the Corporate Transparency Act—which could have put many farmers and small business owners in jail or fined them up to $10,000 for failing to comply. Now, the U.S. Department of Treasury under President Trump and Secretary Scott Bessent is changing course.
The Treasury Department is announcing today that, with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act, not only will it not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the beneficial ownership information reporting rule under the existing regulatory deadlines…
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) March 2, 2025
“The Treasury Department announced that they will not require any domestic company or its beneficial owners to file their information with the federal government,” says Dustin Sherer, Director of Government Affairs for American Farm Bureau.
The Corporate Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress in 2021, required farmers and small business owners to provide their personal information to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Network or FinCEN for short.
Now, they’re no longer going to fine or penalize American farmers and business owners who fail to file. Instead, the Trump administration is crafting an interim final rule that will focus on foreign companies.
Sherer says the rule has faced opposition on a number of different levels.
“Right now, it’s facing something like at least 10 different lawsuits all over the country. You’ve got cases in federal district courts. You’ve got rulings from those federal district courts that have been appealed to the courts of appeal in various jurisdictions. You’ve had a bill to delay the enforcement unanimously pass the House, and you’ve had letter writing campaigns from outside organizations, including Farm Bureau.”
Unfortunately, there are still questions about what happens to the personal information from all of the farmers and small business owners who had already filed?
“We don’t know yet. That’s certainly, I think, the next question that my organization, and many others that have sent a lot of these letters are going to ask is, we very much appreciate the belief, but what happens to all those people who were just trying to be responsible and file that information? I’m sure they’d like it back.”