OOIDA: BOI would be another unnecessary burden on truckers

After more than a year of back and forth over whether small businesses would be required to file a beneficial ownership information report, the uncertainty is almost in the rearview mirror.

In March, FinCEN submitted an interim final rule to modify the Corporate Transparency Act. The action removes the requirement for U.S. companies and individuals. Meanwhile, foreign companies must continue to comply with the new reporting rules. FinCEN accepted comments through May 27.

The agency received more than 100 comments about the rule. One of those comments came from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which expressed support for FinCEN’s decision to remove the BOI requirements for domestic companies.

“These duplicative reporting requirements enacted in the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act would have forced small-business truckers to unnecessarily disclose personal and business information to yet another federal agency,” OOIDA wrote in comments filed in late May. “Owner-operators and independent truckers already must submit data such as their legal name, address and company name when registering with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. We urge FinCEN to make the current exemption for domestic entities permanent in any forthcoming final rulemaking.”

In 2021, Congress passed the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act with the goal to “combat illicit activity including tax fraud, money laundering and financing for terrorism.” As part of that goal, most small businesses would have been required to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN. Originally, most small businesses were scheduled to file BOI reports before the start of 2025.

However, it has been a wild ride for any business owner who has been trying to follow whether or not the BOI report was going to be required. A series of court decisions in recent months continued to place business owners on and off the hook.

In March, FinCEN attempted to end that rollercoaster by issuing the interim final rule. According to the Regulations.gov website, 118 comments were submitted to the agency.

OOIDA told FinCEN that the reporting requirement would serve as just another regulatory burden on truckers.

“Forcing owner-operators and independent truckers to comply with BOI reporting requirements would unlikely root out significant criminal activity but instead add another disruptive layer of regulatory red tape along with excessive compliance costs for America’s small businesses,” OOIDA wrote.

The Association added that business owners deserve certainty regarding reporting requirements.

“Over the past year, the Corporate Transparency Act implementation has been rightfully criticized for disjointed filing deadlines, a rash of on-again, off-again court decisions, plus a lack of communication from the federal government that made small businesses question if, when and how they should submit BOI,” OOIDA wrote. “We applaud FinCEN for issuing the interim final rule that reduces regulatory burdens and clarifies only foreign reporting companies must file BOI. Moving forward, we see no reason why small-business truckers need to comply with the Corporate Transparency Act’s redundant BOI reporting requirements.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren filed comments opposed to the interim final rule. The lawmakers said the Corporate Transparency Act was the result of years of bipartisan work in Congress to address shell companies and money laundering.

“Indeed, removing domestic companies, along with the U.S. owners of foreign reporting companies, from the purview of the Corporate Transparency Act would entirely defeat the purpose of the (act) by continuing to allow shell corporations operating in the U.S. to remain unknown to law enforcement and national security officials,” the senators wrote.

The next step for FinCEN is to review the comments before determining if any adjustments are necessary. LL

Land Line Associate Editor Tyson Fisher contributed to this report.