As a small business owner and expert, I implore you to overturn the Corporate Transparency Act’s Beneficial Ownership Information rule. This rule unfairly targets small businesses and violates their constitutional rights.
Preventing financial crimes is a worthy goal, but your methods cannot infringe upon Americans’ natural rights or assume their guilt without due process. The CTA BOI rule requires small businesses to report sensitive personal information to FinCEN, an organization involved in monitoring financial crimes. This is an invasion of privacy and creates additional burdens for small business owners.
Furthermore, the rule exempts large businesses from this reporting requirement, unfairly penalizing small businesses with a different set of rules. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, not shell companies. If FinCEN has concerns about money laundering or cartel activity, they should use the courts to receive information on specific cases and entities.
The penalties for non-compliance are egregious, including significant financial and criminal penalties, including jail time. This is an excessive punishment for law-abiding small business owners.
The rule also exposes small business owners to fraud and privacy violations. The FinCEN BOI landing page warns of fraudulent information solicitation attempts from third parties. Creating this type of database raises concerns about abuse internally. FinCEN itself has been accused of unjustified data usage.
Small business owners are facing numerous challenges, including COVID-19 mandates, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and inflation. The last thing they need is more administrative burdens and the threat of jail time for non-compliance with the CTA BOI rule.
A federal district court in Alabama has already found the CTA BOI rule unconstitutional. FinCEN is ignoring this ruling for everyone except the plaintiffs in that case. If the rule is unconstitutional, it should be immediately shut down.
Congress must take action to overturn the CTA BOI rule and protect small businesses from this government overreach. FinCEN has other tools at their disposal to combat financial crimes without harming small businesses.
