Sorry I’m not clearer in my post. But I don’t mean to suggest that any sole proprietorship needs to file. An LLC treated as a sole proprietorship would. Most others would not.

The general rule is you file a BOIR if you earlier filed formation documents (for a corporation, LLC, LLP or something else like that) with the state or tribal government.

No worries. I will fix. Also pretty sure Harry won’t mind. (I love The Finance Buff btw…)

Thank you for all your guidance over the years!

Good comments. Thanks for sharing. For what it’s worth, the attorney in our practice, thinks the way we’re doing this is NOT the unauthorized practice of law. BTW our approach will be to not get into anything clever like trying to discern whether members in a member-managed LLC have substantial control or not. We’re just going to assume they do have substantial control and so disclose. And for spouses with community property interests that might rise to reporting threshold? Again, we’re doing to disclose. The basic approach is hope to help client avoid any penalty risk. Since I’m on this subject, I’ll also say that we don’t think we can take any sort of proactive monitoring of BOI report info. E.g., I understand some folks have talked about reminding people when their driver’s license expires… That seems like a bridge to far to me.

I think currently disregarded entities (like single member LLCs) need to apply for an EIN.

the one unknown answer is once a CPA or attorney files to set up an entity with their state, the CPA or attorney becomes the company applicant. if there is a change in the professional relationship with the CPA or attorney, there is no mechanism that i have been able to locate to terminate the company applicant status. Could be a problem if there is a required disclosure after termination of the professional relationship and the CPA or attorney is still tied barred to the FinCEN data base as the company applicant.

it is still an uncertain decision for CPA firms to offer the CTA services since it could be considered the unauthorized practice of law. Congress will have to provide an exception for CPA’s like for tax practice.

Finally, if attorneys get into this business, who are they going to call? Not the ghostbusters, yes the CPA’s since the CPA’s have most of the information. Clients will rebel about the costs of this disclosures. And the NY is getting into this business too, which could be the forerunner of future states to jump on the band wagon. My CPA firm is not going to offer CTA services

Kind regards

Mike Flintoff, CPA