Great News for the New Year! The “merits” Panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the Temporary Nationwide Ban on the Corporate Transparency Act (or as we like to call it, the Small Business Snooping Act) on December 26, 2024. Therefore, small businesses are not currently required to provide the government (FINCEN) with the names of their owners under the CTA. As a reminder, the CTA is a bad law that would have required every small business with less than 20 employees (or less than $5 million in annual revenue) to provide the government with the personal information of every owner with at least 25% equity or those with operational control of the company.
Old Glory Bank will never stop fighting for PSL – Privacy, Security, and Liberty. For months, we have been publicly asserting that the CTA is unconstitutional. Thankfully, on December 3, 2024, a District Judge in Texas issued a temporary injunction pausing the collection of data under the CTA in a brilliant and thoughtful 79-page opinion. Then, on December 23rd, a 3-judge panel put a “stay” on the injunction, which meant small businesses would again have to file with the government. Fortunately, on December 26th (just 3 days later), a different panel on the Fifth Circuit (the “merits” panel) reinstated the block. As of today, there is no longer a requirement to file under the CTA.
Says Mike Ring, CEO of Old Glory Bank and 30-year corporate lawyer, “Today, filing under the CTA is NOT mandatory. So, unless you love the government and want law enforcement to have the personal information of your company’s owners, do not ‘voluntarily’ file under the CTA. If you voluntarily provide the government with this personal information, it will be available forever. We believe this is the ‘beginning of the end’ for the unconstitutional CTA, so do nothing today.”