Tag Archives: DIY

Education, Tips

BOI Reporting Is Back — Most Filings Now Due January 13, 2025

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My feelings regarding how FinCEN has handled Beneficial Ownership information (BOI) under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) are best left unexpressed.

UPDATE: as of December 27,2024, the Fifth Circuit reversed their own stay while they’re deciding the case. This means the injunction is back on and there’s currently no enforceable BOI reporting requirement.

More here from my colleague Kelly Phillips Erb — In Whiplash Maneuver, Court Rules Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting Requirements Are On Hold

Therefore, anything in the original article below is informational-only and BOI filing is currently voluntary per the FinCEN website.

Here is the original article from the day before the 12/27/24 reversal:

With all the insanity about Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting these past few weeks — first the nationwide injunction preventing FinCEN from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)… then the House passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) that would give us all a year-long delay while the various court challenges made their way through the system… then the Senate passing a version of the CR without addressing the issue… and then, yesterday a stay on the injunction by the Fifth Circuit — meaning that everything is back in place and the BOI is once again law of the land — how much more confusion could there possibly be?

I’ve been putting off finalizing my definitive article on the topic for months, despite having interviewed five different filing companies back in January and February, as most sources of information suggested that the BOI was likely to be delayed a year — that’s certainly what AICPA, NATP, and our other membership organizations have been lobbying for in Congress. And with the increased confusion surrounding this year-end injunction prohibiting its enforcement, even FinCEN itself said that though they would appeal, for the time being, BOI filing would be voluntary. And now it’s the holidays and everything has been upended. So — I’m going to push off a longer article on what the heck BOI is and why we have to file it and the myriad reasons I feel it’s a terrible law (though probably not unconstitutional — just terrible lawmaking) until after the New Year, and this just covers “what you need to know NOW”.

In a tiny bit of good news for what’s left of our holiday season, at least they’ve given us 12 days of BOI extension in place of 12 days of Christmas or 8 days of Hanukkah.

What are the current deadlines?

An update from Melanie Lauridsen at AICPA:

‼️ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, US Treasury issues small extension/delay for BOI reporting. ‼️
Specifically:
* Companies created or registered prior to January 1, 2024 have until January 13, 2025 to file.
* Companies created or registered on or after September 4, 2024 that had a filing deadline between December 3, 2024 and December 23, 2024 have until January 13, 2025 to file.
* Companies created or registered on or after December 3, 2024 and on or before December 23, 2024 have an additional 21 days from their original filing deadline to file.
* Companies that qualify for disaster relief may have extended deadlines that fall beyond January 13, 2025. These companies should abide by whichever deadline falls later.
* Companies that are created or registered on or after January 1, 2025 have 30 days to file.

And here’s a handy Journal of Accountancy article with a few more details.

What are my options?

Well, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t advise you, but I can say that you do seem to have a couple of choices — file it yourself or seek help.

  1. File the BOI on your own as a DIY — in which case I recommend you use my colleague Hannah Smolinski‘s handy do-it-yourself YouTube guide, here. This is free and you file directly with FinCEN. The negatives are that it’s a bit fussy and your data is not saved for the next time you file or update your info. The pros: FREE and DIRECT.
  2. File the BOI with the help of a third party. There are a zillion out there, many of whom are just going through the motions without considering the potentially special needs of your situation — such as condo associations, cooperatives, and other group filers, or other companies whose beneficial owners are not listed on the Secretary of State documents filed when you became organized or incorporated. Worse even, many companies and attorneys are charging an arm and a leg for this reporting — and getting it, from unsuspecting businesses. I’ve interviewed quite a few companies offering this service, and my favorite ended up being File Forms. I like the ease of use of their user-interface, the fact that they have guidance to walk you through the process, and that they let you save your info for the next time you have to file or update your report. (Note: while this is a referral link, know that I chose them well before they offered it to me; I had a great experience with their sister organization during the ERC era, and they were my objective personal selection for my own BOI filing after interviewing five different companies.)

What happens if I choose not to file?

Penalties are steep for willful non-compliance. I would not take this approach… though if you’re really opposed to it, or already on winter vacation, or busy with year-end tax planning or other seasonal work, you could try waiting until the first week of the new year in case this gets delayed one more time. I wouldn’t personally give you a hard time about that approach. Just don’t forget!

Why are some people so opposed to this?

For now, I’m going to skip answering this question in full — it’ll have to wait until my more comprehensive article on the topic. The short version is that it’s a huge amount of red tape for small business owners that already have way too many barriers to success; FinCEN did a lousy job promoting it and educating business owners; the definition of a beneficial owner is vague; most of this information is already on file at the Secretary of State; it’s too easy to miss filing an update unknowingly; the penalties for non-filing are way too high; and the people who are doing the money laundering are going to have an easy time getting around this anyway.

Is it unconstitutional?

I have no idea. Some folks think it is. Some don’t. That’s why there’s so much court activity on this, adding to the confusion.

What’s my next step?

Decide whether to file DIY or with a third-party. If DIY, go to Hannah‘s step-by-step instructions. If with a third-party, decide whether to use your usual attorney or a company like File Forms. If your situation is at all complex or you don’t understand the instructions — seek professional assistance!

And have a happy holiday season.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Tips

Tips & Tricks for Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) Year-End Reporting

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With one week left before year-end, it’s possible that you are among the folks who received an email (below) back in October but hasn’t yet reported to the SBA on the eligible expenses incurred so far. This blog post (with a 20-min video walking you through the whole process) is our suggestion of how to translate the info you already have in QuickBooks into a format that will easily conform to the Restaurant Revitalization Award Portal requirements.

Sample email from SBA regarding RRF year-end reporting.

Spoiler alert: the process takes more than 5 minutes. It can easily take an hour or more. The actual entering of data into the SBA RRF portal is the part that only takes 5 or so minutes.

Our recommendation is to download the free Restaurant Revitalization Fund Tracker from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) website (like their PPP Forgiveness Calculator, you do have to register for an account, but there’s no charge). However, instead of entering each individual transaction on the form (as it’s designed for you to do), our suggested shortcut is to take the information you already have in your QuickBooks file and enter each category as one line — then subtract all the non-RRF grants and assistance received, so that you’re not double-dipping.

The RRF period runs from February 15, 2020 — the very beginning of the pandemic — to March 11, 2023. The year-end reporting is just a progress report of what you’ve spent so far that is eligible for RRF program fund allocation. So we suggest you run a Profit & Loss for your company for the period of February 15, 2020 all the way through November 30, 2021 (or whatever your most recently reconciled month-end is), and use those numbers to report what has been spent so far. Then enter the non-RRF grant funds as negative numbers on the same Expense Tracker tab, so that they net against each other. The result will be the data you submit to the SBA at restaurants.sba.gov once you log in to your portal.

I’ve recorded a video illustrating the whole process — but in case you want a follow-along checklist, here it is:

Step 1 – download the AICPA RRF Tracking Tool
Step 2 – enter the name of your company in the Summary tab, cell A9
Step 3 – enter the RRF amount in the Expense Tracker tab, cell C6
Step 4 – run your Profit & Loss from 2/15/2020-11/20/2021
Step 5 – export to Excel and save to your RRF file folder
Step 6 – on the Expense Tracker tab, enter summary amounts from the Profit & Loss for Payroll, Rent, Utilities, Food & Beverage, Maintenance, Supplies, Covered Supplier Costs, and Business Operations Expenses

Tip: for now, skip Mortgage Payments, Debt Service, Outdoor Seating Construction, and Depreciation, or ask your accountant for help with these, as they are usually on the Balance Sheet or in the Non-Operating Expense section of the Profit & Loss, and are therefore harder to DIY.

Tip: Business Operations Expenses are all operating expenses that are not already accounted for in one of the other categories.

Step 7 – IMPORTANT: enter all the non-RRF grants and financial assistance as negative amounts on the Expense Tracker tab — this is to prevent any double-dipping
Step 8 – go to restaurants.sba.gov and log in
Step 9 – enter your name, address, EIN, phone, and email (if this information is not already there)
Step 10 – enter the amounts from the Summary tab — Note: you cannot enter more than the total RRF grant, so you may need to reduce one or more of the categories so that you don’t exceed the total.
Step 11 – if you have allocated all the RRF funds, certify as such — you will not be required to repeat this progress report next year; if you have not allocated all the RRF funds, you will be able to “Save” but not “Submit”.

If you have not allocated all the funds yet, then follow this same process next year by December 31, 2022 — you can run the Profit & Loss from 12/1/2021-11/30/2022 at that point and follow the same approach. Most folks will have sufficient eligible expenses from 2/15/2020-11/30/2021 to “use up” the whole RRF grant, but after subtracting other grant income from expenses, may find that they still have a balance left over that they can allocate costs to when reporting at the end of 2022.

You have until March 11, 2023 to allocate all the funds (aka spend them on operating expenses, and until April 30, 2023 for final reporting. If it turns out you didn’t have enough eligible expenses from 2/15/20-11/30/21 using Profit & Loss Operating Expenses, then take some time to work with your accountant to determine if you have debt service, mortgage payments, capital expenses for outdoor seating, or depreciation that counts. You can report these in next year’s RRF Program Post-Award Report, along with next year’s Profit & Loss Operating Expenses. In all cases: make sure to subtract all other grant income from expenses so you are not double-dipping!

23-minute video walking you through the whole process — Merry Christmas!

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.