BOI question

Because IRS and FinCen are two different branches of the Treasury Department.  FinCen is no more related to IRS than is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  It will be interesting to see, however, whether these filing requirements are delayed or repealed before the November 2024 elections, when small business owners will have been told how much closer Big Brother is watching.  " ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.” -- said Mike Johnson.  So maybe this relates to Herod tracking down the male babies in Bethlehem.  

I could have sworn I saw something about having to upload a photo ID as well for this BOI thing. 

Im savoring these last few weeks of freedom before needing to burden myself with new tax junk.

I picked this thread because it was the most recent and easiest to find. 🙂

Someone posted this link in another tax group:

https://www.fincen.gov/boi-faqs

I've been generally of the opinion that accountants have no authority to file these.  We are granted limited authority to "practice law" in that Title 26 of the U.S. Code (commonly referred to as the Internal Revenue Code) is "law".  There is also a specific carve out for FBAR filings.  Beyond that, IMO this BOI is the practice of law.  If you scroll down on the link above to FAQ Section D you'll see this is ridiculously all-encompassing and, while some things are cut-and-dried, many of the terms are vague and poorly defined.  This might be easy enough for a SMLLC with no employees but get much beyond that and you're trying to figure out who might be an "important" decision-maker, regardless of actual/legal ownership.

After reading through this post I was thinking, things could be worse:

And yes, the irony here is that you need to have an attorney tell you if you are engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.

Clearly, BOI will not have a place at the table this year.

For those interested, Basics and Beyond income tax seminars has an excellent section on the corporate transparency Act on their 2023 year end federal tax update webinar. They have live virtual webinars coming up. I'm attending the one right now and we are on break. It is excellent. You can ask questions to the presenters. Some nerd from Pennsylvania asked why wouldn't they make an exception and ask the questions on the annual corporate or LLC tax return. The instructor said that makes sense. Oh by the way, while I was here in front of my computer at this webinar, a client stopped by to drop some data off. I told him about this Boi matter and he had no clue. The attorney who filed the initial papers with the Department of State died a few months or so ago.

As others come back for the new tax season, maybe it's a good idea to revive this thread.

I sense an attitude among some people that they aren't going to help their clients with this because they don't like the law.  Is that really who we are?  May I suggest an alternative?  "We will be happy to help you file this report (for a reasonable fee) once you have shown as the answers you have received from your Senator and Representative, to your objection to this unreasonable paperwork burden.  Here are their names and addresses.  All answers must be dated before November 5, 2024."