Why does the administrative state hate people who work for a living?



The Trump administration has made Main Street a central priority — and limiting the reach of the Corporate Transparency Act’s Beneficial Ownership Information rule was one of its best decisions so far. The rule required small businesses to hand over sensitive ownership data to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, under threat of heavy fines and criminal penalties. Large corporations were mostly exempt.

After small-business owners and pro-business lawmakers protested, the administration moved quickly. In March, it issued an interim rule exempting U.S. small businesses and citizens from the reporting mandate. Treasury then opened a public comment period to shape a final rule. That comment window closed five months ago, and yet the final rule still hasn’t arrived.

The administration must not allow deep-state bureaucrats and bad actors to stall this reform. Small businesses need clarity and relief — now, not after another election cycle.

Small-business owners want the exemption locked in for good — not left vulnerable to reversal by a future administration. Ohio Republican Rep. Warren Davidson’s Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act, with nearly 200 co-sponsors, aims to make that exemption permanent. But some lawmakers say they can’t codify until Treasury finalizes the rule. The delay is holding back certainty for millions of entrepreneurs.

Many of those same business owners also want FinCEN to purge the personal data they already submitted before the exemption took effect. With hacking and misuse always possible, they’re demanding the government delete the information it never should have collected.

FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki acknowledged the concern during a congressional hearing. “Along with the resolution of this rule, we also intend to resolve questions around the data that we have collected and dispose of data that is no longer legally required,” Gacki said.

A purge appears to be on the table — but without urgency from Treasury, the data remains at risk.

Gacki told Congress the rule would be finalized “in the upcoming year.” Whether that means 2025 or 2026 is anyone’s guess. The longer the Treasury Department drags its feet, the closer we get to the midterms — and the less likely Congress is to act in time.

Brian Reardon, president of the S Corporation Association, put it bluntly: “Intentions are well and good, but we need action. Sixteen million small businesses filed their owners’ personal information under the old rules. The only way to protect that information is to purge the database now.”

RELATED: Europe shows us what happens when bureaucrats win

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The National Federation of Independent Business agrees. NFIB’s Josh McLeod said, “President Trump was right to call BOI egregious, invasive, and an economic menace. Unfortunately, a future administration can simply rewrite this burdensome mandate back into existence. Small businesses urgently need the Trump administration and Congress to repeal the CTA and destroy the data.”

Small businesses remain the backbone of the U.S. economy. Reducing legal uncertainty and lifting needless regulatory burdens should stay at the top of Congress’ agenda. Finalizing the CTA BOI rule — and permanently securing the exemptions for small businesses and citizens — is an easy, commonsense win for Main Street.

The Trump administration must not allow deep-state bureaucrats and bad actors to stall this reform. Small businesses need clarity and relief — now, not after another election cycle.

Elon, Vivek, and the DOGE have a chance at a huge early small business win



The incoming Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, aims to eliminate regulatory and spending waste in the federal government. That should be a plentiful task. This exciting initiative presents a real opportunity to assist 34 million small businesses right away.

Small businesses and other organizations, including some homeowners’ association boards, face new scrutiny from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Under the Corporate Transparency Act's Beneficial Ownership Information rule, FinCEN requires these groups to register sensitive personal information for all owners and business decision-makers by January 1. I have previously written about this mandate and its implications.

Given the tight time frame and appeal process, the DOGE and Trump can make an impact even before the inauguration and reap the first regulatory victory.

The idea is to combat cartel activity, money laundering, and terrorism — which is absurd. Why would anyone engaging in such activities voluntarily register with the government? And, given that big businesses are for some reason exempt from reporting, it’s clear the rule is just targeting and harassing small companies — millions of which do not even know about it.

If you do not comply, or if your information changes and you don’t update it with FinCEN, penalties range from jail time to fines of almost $600 per day!

Earlier this year, a court ruled the CTA BOI rule unconstitutional but limited the ruling’s scope to the plaintiffs, the National Small Business Association. A Texas judge last week expanded the impact by granting a nationwide injunction in a lawsuit filed by the Center for Individual Rights, the National Federation of Independent Business, and other groups.

Although this ruling is good news for many, the Treasury Department has appealed the ruling. If the injunction is stayed or narrowed, compliance requirements and associated fines could return with only weeks — days! — left before the January 1 deadline. This uncertainty is causing significant anxiety among small businesses that oppose the rule but fear they may need to scramble to comply if the courts reinstate the original deadline.

The DOGE should act now to bring this issue to President-elect Donald Trump's attention. If the DOGE and Trump promptly announce that his administration will not enforce penalties for non-compliance, it would provide much-needed clarity to small businesses and an early public relations win. Ideally, they could go further by declaring the CTA BOI rule unconstitutional and pledging to eliminate it entirely. Purging the database of any previously collected information would offer additional reassurance to those affected.

Given the tight time frame and appeal process, this will allow the DOGE and Trump to make an impact even before the inauguration and create the first victory over regulatory excess and government waste. It will also provide much needed clarity and relief for tens of millions of small businesses that make up the backbone of our economy.

For anyone with questions on the CTA BOI rule or who wants updates, I am providing them, along with other information, in my free newsletters at https://www.CarolRoth.com/NEWS.

New ‘Transparency’ Act Forces Small Businesses To Register Personal Data With Federal Law Enforcement

By year-end, Americans will be required to hand over data on their small businesses to the federal government’s law enforcement database.

New Corporate Transparency Act could make criminals out of small-business owners



The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is looking to turn small-business owners into criminals through the new Corporate Transparency Act.

According to the act, anyone with an LLC is beholden to new rules. Under those rules, small-business owners have to report information to financial crimes that could land them in jail or with hefty fines if they don’t comply — but there are some exemptions.

Those who don’t have to worry about the new rules are those who have at least 20 employees or $5 million in revenue.

“Nobody knows anything about it,” Glenn Beck warns.

Alabama’s Supreme Court said they would rule the act unconstitutional, but those pushing it claimed it was a “blow to corporate transparency” and would make it “harder to fight the cartels.”

Former investment banker Carol Roth sees right through it, noting that no real money launderer or cartel is going to self report to FinCEN.

“The ones who are massive criminals aren’t going to be reporting to FinCEN, so all this is is a mass surveillance program against small business,” Roth says, adding, “and the penalties, as you said, are insane.”

The penalties don’t just occur if you fail to report business-related information. The penalties also occur if any updates to your identification go unreported.

“If you don’t let FinCEN know, they can send you to jail,” Roth says, adding, “Why this was ever passed.”

Trump had originally vetoed the Corporate Transparency Act, but then it went back to Congress where they overrode it under the Biden administration.

“This is absolutely insane. There are 33 million small businesses in this country. Why are they being put under a microscope and saying, 'You are criminals, you’re financial criminals, and we are going to hold your feet to the fire if you don’t let us track you'?” Roth asks.


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Glenn Beck: Will New Law Crush Small Businesses? | Corporate Transparency Act
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Glenn Beck: Will New Law Crush Small Businesses? | Corporate Transparency Act

Warning: New Biden policy is about to crush small businesses in 2024



A new Biden rule is about to blindside 32 million small businesses with traps that could land entrepreneurs in jail.

The Corporate Transparency Act goes into effect on January 1, 2024, and has been marketed as a way to prevent money laundering — but it suspiciously only targets the smallest of small businesses.

“What this looks like is, ‘Let’s attack the smallest business owners that we have in our economy and get them to close their doors!' That’s what it feels like to me,” Glenn Beck explains.

Former investment banker Carol Roth agrees.

“It’s part that, and it’s part a massive data collection program that nobody knows about,” Roth tells Glenn.

“If you’re a single-member LLC or if your business has an S corp, even if you don’t have employees, you’re impacted,” Roth continues, adding that those businesses will “have to register with a group that’s out of the treasury called FINSEN, which is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.”

However, if you’re a large business owner with at least 20 employees and $5 million in revenue, you’re exempt.

“What crappy money launderer are you that you’re not at least making $5 million?” Glenn comments, shocked.

“You’re money laundering for Doritos,” Roth laughs. “That’s what the ridiculousness of it is, the burden, the invasion of privacy, the collection of small business information.”

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, who makes $5 million in one job, walks free.

It will cost small businesses $85 to prepare and submit the initial beneficial ownership information report.

“And if you don’t do it exactly right, a massive fine is coming your way,” Glenn says, to which Roth adds, “Not only fine, but you could also go to jail.”

The jail penalty is enforced if a small business owner does not participate.

The rule was proposed in January 2020 when Trump was still in office.

“It went to his desk, both houses voted for it, went to his desk — he vetoed it,” Glenn says.


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