The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was signed into law in December 2020 and requires ONLY certain businesses with fewer than 20 employees to disclose owners’ information to the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Failure of a small business to comply—intentional or not—could result in up to $10,000 in fines and up to two years in prison. While the intent of the law was to stem money laundering, the CTA is not only bad policy, it is unconstitutional. 

NSBA applauds Treasury and FinCEN for the March 2025 decision to no longer enforce CTA-mandated beneficial ownership information (BOI) requirements. However, a comprehensive legislative solution is still needed in order to ensure that small businesses are permanently protected.

NSBA is in the midst of a lawsuit against Treasury over the implementing regulations of the CTA. NSBA won the first ruling at the District court. However, on Dec. 16, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. For the time being, small businesses are still exempt due to the aforementioned Treasury rule, but a legislative solution is needed to ensure small businesses are permanently protected.

The ONLY way to truly stop the CTA is for Congress to act. We fully support the goal of stemming money laundering – but we cannot allow the federal government to charge small businesses with the enforcement of it, which is exactly what the CTA will do.

Please take a moment TODAY to urge lawmakers to support every effort to permanently reject this harmful law.