In a word (or two): A lot! Have you been hearing the alarm bells sound about reporting your ownership information to the federal government, lest you be subject to hefty fines, starting January 1? And now, perhaps you’ve heard that you no longer need to file this report? Well, none of that is wrong, but it’s also not the full picture.
Last month, we wrote that all LLCs and corporations created before 2024 must register with the federal government by January 1, 2025. Farms that created a business entity in 2024 were required to register with the federal government within 90 days. We shared details about why registration was required and a few specific exceptions. Filing the BOI report is easy- and the blog post above has a link to a video that walks through the process.
Then, on December 3, 2024, a U.S. District Court issued an injunction, which means that the court halted the entire process of enforcing the law. The real-life implication is that businesses are no longer subject to fines if they fail to file the report before the Jan 1, 2025 deadline. Small businesses seemed to breathe a sigh of relief!
But not everyone seems to know or care about the injunction. The wheels of commerce haven’t stopped spinning, at least. Last week, Farm Commons’ Executive Director, Rachel, logged into her email to find a particularly loud email shouting at her about the need to file a BOI report. The email reminded her several times that she must act or risk fines of up to $500 per day. Technically, this was no longer true, but the company may not have been watching the news. Of course, they wanted her to buy their subscription service to keep her BOI report with the federal government up to date. There’s nothing wrong with services like these, but relying on commercial businesses for legal information can be hazardous, especially in cases like these.
The legal situation continues to develop. The federal government responded to the injunction by requesting the U.S. Court of Appeals stay the injunction. In this case, a “stay” means to halt the injunction, which, if the stay is granted, will have the effect of allowing enforcement to continue. The court will consider the stay request by December 19 and may issue a ruling by December 27, 2024. This means it’s still possible the January 1, 2025, deadline will be back, perhaps even before we pop the cork for 2025.
Don’t put away that BOI report link just yet! Keep our blog post with the video on how to fill out the report handy. Farmers who haven’t let the government know who owns their LLCs or corporations may need to get that done quickly, as the situation develops.