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. Treasury Department under President Trump 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
“There was a lot of concern that many businesses who were unaware of this could get caught up in the compliance part of it, and that could have led to a lot of penalties. It could have led to prison time for some people,” according to Kent Bacus with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).
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, the Treasury Department, which is led by Secretary Scott Bessent, is no longer going to fine or penalize American farmers and small business owners who fail to file.
“The Treasury Department has released an interim rule that says that this will only apply to foreign reporting companies. So, this is a big win for us. It’s a big win for small businesses all over rural America,” says Bacus.
The law was initially passed to try and weed out the money launderers and terrorists hiding the U.S. However, the law could have had a negative impact on more than 230,000 American farmers.
“These small businesses in rural America are not the money launderers that this law was designed to go after. So, we’re going to not enforce this for them. We’re going to go after the people we really suspect,” he says.
Bacus adds that your lawmakers in Congress must still provide a permanent solution to the issue. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Congressman Warren Davidson (R-OH-08) have re-introduced the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act in the 119th Congress in order to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act altogether.
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