January 2024 Tax-Saving Tips
Corporate Transparency Act Requires BOI Reporting to FinCEN
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is upon us. It took effect on January 1, 2024, and imposes a new federal filing requirement for most corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), and other business entities.
Corporations, LLCs, and other entities subject to the CTA are called “reporting companies.” People who form new reporting companies during 2024 must file a beneficial ownership information (BOI) report with the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within 90 days of forming the company.
The owners of reporting companies created before 2024 must also file a BOI report, but they have until January 1, 2025 (but think December 31, 2024).
Some businesses are exempt from filing—for example, large operating companies, which the CTA defines as those with over 20 employees and $5 million in income. There are other, narrower exemptions as well.
The BOI report must contain the name, the birth date, the address, and an ID number and image of that ID for each “beneficial owner” of the reporting company. These are the human beings who (1) own or control at least 25 percent of the company or (2) exercise “substantial control” over the company.
The BOI report is filed online at a new federal database called BOSS (an acronym for Beneficial Ownership Secure System). There is no filing fee.
Government law enforcement and security agencies will use the data from BOI reports to help combat money laundering, tax evasion, terrorism, and other crimes. It will not be available to the public.
Naturally, people have lots of questions about the BOI report filing requirements—for example:
Do you have to file a BOI report if you own a single rental property in an LLC? (Yes.)
Do you have to file 10 BOI reports if you own 10 LLCs? (Yes.)
Can certified public accountants, enrolled agents, and other non-lawyers file BOI reports for clients without running afoul of unauthorized practice of law rules? (Unclear.)
Are registered agents responsible for filing the BOI report? (No.)
Do the self-employed have to file? (No.)
Do I need to list a street address in the BOI report? (Yes.)
Do I need to list my Social Security number in the BOI report? (No.)
Do I need to list my attorney in the BOI report? (Maybe.)
Must I file an updated BOI report if a beneficial owner leaves the company? (Yes.)
Do I have to list my minor child in a BOI report? (No.)
Will criminals file BOI reports? (Who knows?)
New 1099-K Filing Rules Delayed Again
Do you sell goods or services and receive payment through a third-party settlement organization (TPSO)? If so, you must know the IRS’s new Form 1099-K reporting rules.
TPSOs include
payment apps such as PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo;
online auction or marketplace services such as eBay and Amazon;
gig economy platforms such as Uber and Airbnb;
some cryptocurrency processors such as BitPay;
craft or maker marketplaces like Etsy ;
ticket exchange or resale sites like Ticketmaster; and
some crowdfunding platforms.
For over a decade, TPSOs filed IRS Form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, reporting certain payments the TPSOs processed for goods and services.
But a TPSO had to file Form 1099-K only if the recipient had
gross annual earnings over $20,000, and
more than 200 transactions in the calendar year.
With these thresholds, only frequent users of TPSOs exceeded both thresholds and had their payment information reported to the IRS. If you never received a 1099-K from a TPSO that processed payments on your behalf, this is why.
That is changing. Congress drastically reduced the 1099-K filing thresholds when it enacted the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to require TPSOs to file Form 1099-K for any recipient who is paid more than $600 during the year with no minimum transaction requirement.
The new 1099-K filing rules were supposed to go into effect for the 2022 tax year.
But the IRS delayed them until 2023. Now, the IRS has delayed them yet again, announcing that the old rules ($20,000/200 transactions) remain in place for 2023.
For the 2024 tax year, the IRS is replacing the $20,000/200 transaction threshold with a $5,000 threshold and no minimum transaction requirement.
For the 2025 tax year and later, the IRS will apply the $600 threshold, again with no minimum transaction requirement.
Why all the delays? Because the IRS fears that TPSOs will mistakenly file many of the expected 44 million 1099-Ks. For example, TPSOs might mistakenly file 1099-Ks for personal payments from family and friends.