Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with National Cattlemen’s Association executive director of government affairs, Kent Bacus, about the roller coaster surrounding the Corporate Transparency Act.
In early December, the Corporate Transparency Act was halted to determine its constitutionality, then on December 23, it was reinstated with its original January 1, 2025, deadline. Then, once again on December 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed that decision and reinstated the preliminary injunction against the federal government’s enforcement of the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting rules under the Corporate Transparency Act.
“Now, the preliminary injunction is back in effect, which led the Treasury Department to issue a statement saying that they are not going to enforce the Corporate Transparency Act while this injunction is in place,” Bacus explained. “So, for now, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief because it looks like this injunction is going to hold and that January 1 deadline is not going to be enforced.”
NCBA will continue to monitor the situation closely because the Department of Justice will likely appeal to the Supreme Court.
As many as thirty million small businesses would be required to file the paperwork including many cattle producers. Bacus warned producers that they are still not completely out of the woods.
“There is still a lot to be determined from this, and even though we have this temporary relief, it is very important to continue to talk to your attorneys and tax preparers to find out if you need to submit a voluntary report because the Treasury is going to continue to accept those,” Bacus detailed. “It may not hurt for some people to do that, but you really need to have that discussion with your attorney because anything can happen in this whole legal process.”
Additionally, he encouraged producers to work to push Congress to make long-term changes to the Corporate Transparency Act to provide more certainty for cattle producers and other small business owners across the United States.
NCBA will prioritize such action with the new Congress and has already sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informing her of how cattle producers and rural businesses are being affected by the Corporate Transparency Act.
“We needed to communicate directly to Secretary Yellen and let her know that while her constituency is primarily Wall Street, you have a lot of us out here in rural America that are not your constituency, but we are an important part of the economy. This rule that you have been putting forward, this new regulatory burden will affect so many people, and you need to understand exactly how this will impact us,” Bacus summarized. “We also continue to call for, at minimum, a one-year delay until this can be sorted out because while they are going after money launderers and other criminals, we are not the people they should be going after. By going after this, they are going to create an entire criminal class out of honest, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens and small business owners across rural America.”
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