Level 15

BOI / Fincen Lawsuit Update

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 30, 2024
3 replies
9 views

Trying to avoid doing real work, I looked up the status of this case. Turns out the 11th Circuit held oral arguments last week:

"Oral argument held this date. Oral Argument presented by Steven H. Hazel for Appellants Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of the Treasury and Acting Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Thomas Lee for Appellees National Small Business United and Isaac Winkles. [Entered: 09/27/2024 12:40 PM]"

The three-judge panel no doubt was reminded that a decision by the end of the year would be helpful.

Meanwhile the Community Associations Institute (advocacy group for what are commonly known as homeowners associations, or HOAs) filed a lawsuit earlier this month to ask for an exemption for its members. They also filed an amicus brief in the NSBU case:

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was signed into law Dec. 2020 and is now in effect for many community associations. This law will require community associations with fewer than 20 employees and less than $5 million in annual revenue to disclose beneficial owners’ information to the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). 

While we support the goal of stopping money laundering and funding schemes for terrorist activity, this is not good public policy for community association boards of directors. CAI believes community associations were unintendedly caught up in this law which is intended for corporations laundering money for terrorist activity.  Failure of a volunteer community association boards to comply—intentional or not—could result in up to $10,000 in fines and up to two years in prison. 

https://www.caionline.org/advocacy/advocacy-priorities-overview/corporate-transparency-act/

I know some HOA board members who would do everyone a favor by spending a couple years in prison, but probably not for this cause.

The CAI lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, across the river from DC, where the judges are somewhat more respectable than the yahoos in Alabama.

Practice Advice

abctax55

Level 15

Bob.... being from Alabama, I 'resemble' that remark 😉

HumanKind... Be Both

BobKammanAuthor

Level 15

@abctax55 Live long and prosper! But I just saw an interesting stat about your state:

Roughly 1 in 100 Americans die every year. West Virginia has the highest death rate by state: 1,462.7 per 100,000 residents. Alabama has the highest death rate by a single cause: Nearly 300 residents per 100,000 die of heart disease every year — but that number is affected by the relatively advanced average age of the state’s population. Once you adjust for that, the heart-unhealthiest state is Mississippi at 245.6 deaths per 100,000, and the heart-healthiest is @IronMan 's Minnesota at 118.

Which, of course led me to Google for this information: The ten states with the lowest life expectancies, in order, are Mississippi (74.6), West Virginia (74.9), Alabama (74.9), Kentucky (75.1), Arkansas (75.4), Oklahoma (75.5), Louisiana (75.5), Tennessee (76.1), South Carolina (76.2), and Ohio (76.6).

abctax55

Level 15

@BobKamman

No longer "my" state; I just happened to have been born/raised there. The stork made a big mistake.

I left there 50 years ago & have never looked back.

HumanKind... Be Both

Taxes-by-Rocky

Level 7

Yes, it is insulting when the people from Alabama have to fix your mistakes.

[Over Ruled] | C-SPAN.org

IRonMaN

Level 15

"and the heart-healthiest is @IRonMaN 's Minnesota at 118."

Must be the lutefisk.

Slava Ukraini!

PATAX

Level 12

@BobKamman If you know more than the so called "yahoo" judges from Alabama, then why don't you become a judge?

BobKammanAuthor

Level 15

@PATAX wrote:

@BobKamman If you know more than the so called "yahoo" judges from Alabama, then why don't you become a judge?

And have to eat in the same cafeteria with some of these yahoos?

What's interesting, though, is this same judge was reversed by the 11th Circuit in the last big case he had. And who would have known that he would rule in favor of parents of transgender children? "In May 2022, Burke issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of an Alabama law which criminalized transgender minors from using hormone therapy and puberty blockers. He concluded that the law had a substantial likelihood of being unconstitutional because it interfered with parents' fundamental rights to direct the medical care of their children and constituted unlawful sex discrimination."

Of course that got shot down by an 11th Circuit panel, which disagreed that there is such a fundamental Constitutional right. But then, those three yahoos were appointed by the same guy as Burk.

Taxes-by-Rocky

Level 7

While I was good with the initial arguments against BOI - Congress’s foreign affairs and national security powers; the Commerce Clause; or Congress’s taxing power - I kind of like the fourth amendment argument better "unwarranted search and seizure" [well, let's go with 'search' anyway] despite the 11th Circuit's view, or perhaps that of Thomson Reuters.

Corporate Transparency Act Reaches the 11th Circuit (thomsonreuters.com)

Put simply, does the government have the right to know everything you own?

"Yes, we've granted you a privilege to operate."

"No, one for which I've already paid a license fee and a tax, not to mention the numerous SRO fees; an SRO which is widely recognized by the public."

I don't register my bicycle just because I ride on town roads, my gas grill just because it emits carbon, my fishing rod just because I fish in a state pond. [Well, ok, I'm only half right on that one. It's the pond and the fish the government lays claim to, not the pole.] But I have no intention of inventorying my tangible and intangible property every year just to stick it on a form and send it in. Do you really need to know I still own that Barcalounger I bought in 1974?

In short, property rights belong to the states - so the saying goes. Let's let them decide. Because we all know what will happen if it's left to the states.

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