Due to the burden imposed on banks by Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulation changes requiring collection of information on individuals who hold, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of an equity interest in a legal entity customer, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (the Act) as part of the National Defense Authorization Act to relieve the collection burden from banks by creating a repository of information on legal entities. The Act, upon effectiveness of the implementing regulation, which is due by January 1, 2022, will require certain newly formed and eventually — after a two-year implementation — certain existing US corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), and other similar entities, and non-US companies registered to do business in the United States to file annual reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identifying their beneficial owners. The report must contain the beneficial owner's or owners' full legal name, date of birth, current residential or business street address, and unique identifying number from an acceptable identification document. As noted in our previous article, there can be more than one beneficial owner and, where there are layers of entity ownership, each layer must be examined and the ultimate beneficial owner determined in accordance with the current requirements of 31 CFR §1010.230. Continue reading >