The Corporate Transparency Act s articulated purpose is to crack down on anonymous shell companies.
Feb 12th, 2021
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Distributors and their executives often form corporations and other legal entities like limited liability companies (LLCs) for a myriad of purposes, including to avoid disclosing the identity of beneficial owners – meaning natural persons who ultimately own, benefit or control legal entities – including for example a trust, foundation, or other legal entity. Generally, the ownership structure let alone the beneficial owner(s) of these legal entities is not readily available, even to investigative sources. The formation of legal entities is a matter of state law, and most states collect very little data about the organizer and other aspects of such entities – especially their beneficial owners. Many distributors know that formation of an LLC under Delaware law, for example, is a smart legal move, because the true (i.e., beneficial) ownership can be b
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On January 1, 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (the Defense Bill ) was enacted into law. The Defense Bill includes the Corporate Transparency Act (the CTA ), which creates a beneficial ownership registry within the U.S. Department of the Treasury s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). The CTA requires all covered corporations, limited liability companies and other similar entities that are formed within any U.S. State (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories), Indian Tribe, or foreign entities that are registered to do business in the United States (collectively, Reporting Companies ) to disclose certain information regarding their beneficial owners to FinCEN. The information to be disclosed includes (i) full legal name, (ii) date of birth, (iii) residential or business street address, and (iv) a unique identifying number from an accep