Episode Details

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), enacted Jan. 1, 2021, requires many entities to file a beneficial ownership information (BOI) report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) beginning in January 2024. Its goal is to increase transparency about who owns or controls an entity and deter money laundering activities.

Tune in to this podcast episode to hear from Melanie Lauridsen, Vice President, Tax Policy & Advocacy — AICPA & CIMA, Roger Harris, President and COO — Padgett Business Services, and Larry Gray, Owner —Alfermann Gray & Co LLC, on the latest with regards to BOI reporting.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Background on BOI reporting (0:57)
• Professional risks associated with completing BOI reports for clients (1:50)
• Advice for CPAs considering an engagement (3:58)
• Roger's take on the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) (5:32)
• Larry's view on how he's handling this UPL (7:33)
• How to communicate to clients about BOI reporting (11:00)
• Recommendations on managing risks (13:51)
• How to relay changes that would impact reports to clients (16:40)
• FAQ from fellow practitioners (19:02)
• Final thoughts (25:13)

AICPA resources

• Beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting — Access resources to learn about the beneficial ownership information reporting requirement under CTA.
• Risk Alert: Navigating Corporate Transparency Act/Beneficial Ownership Reporting – Risk alert from AON, issued Oct. 17, 2023, and updated Nov. 30, 2023.

Other resources

• FinCEN's Beneficial Ownership Information — Access FinCEN's comprehensive information on BOI reporting, including a reporting rule fact sheet, FAQ and newsroom.

Transcript

April Walker: On today's podcast, listen to hear more about the Corporate Transparency Act and beneficial ownership reporting.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the AICPA's Tax Section Odyssey podcasts, where we offer thought leadership on all things tax facing the profession. I'm April Walker, a lead manager from the AICPA Tax Section. Today I'm joined by Melanie Lauridsen, she's AICPA's VP of Tax Policy and Advocacy.

I'm also delighted to be joined by Roger Harris. He is president of Padgett Business Services, who represents the interests of small businesses who are clearly impacted by this reporting regime that we're going to be talking about today.

Larry Gray, Larry is a CPA who owns his own accounting practice and represents tax professionals and their considerations regarding BOI reporting.

Just want to do a quick background before we delve into the questions today. As you likely know, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is also known as FinCEN, establish a beneficial ownership reporting requirement, which we will refer to today as BOI, under the Corporate Transparency Act and that requires many businesses to report information on their beneficial owners, and that starts January 1st of 2024.

We're recording this today on December the 14th, and that January date is definitely rapidly approaching. We've actually done a podcast on this before, some other more details