Do Not Miss Your (BOI) Filing Deadline On 12/31/24! Fines Can be 500.00 Per Day for non Compliance.

James Walsh Explains what Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) is and how important it is to file before the 12/31/24 deadline. If you own a business in the United States do not delay and file today with link below.

James has created a website to help you with filing your BOI
https://boifilings.com/

Click link below to watch the YouTube version of this episode.
https://youtu.be/r7gfkBV8tWk

Filing your Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) before December 31, 2024, is essential due to compliance requirements set by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which is enforced by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Here’s why you need to file before this deadline:

1. New Reporting Requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)

The CTA was enacted to increase transparency in corporate ownership and prevent illicit activities like money laundering, tax evasion, and fraud. The act requires most U.S. corporations, LLCs, and similar entities to report their beneficial owners to FinCEN. A beneficial owner is any individual who directly or indirectly exercises substantial control over the company or owns at least 25% of its ownership interests.

2. Deadlines for Filing

• Existing Entities (Formed before January 1, 2024): Must file their BOI report by December 31, 2024.
• New Entities (Formed on or after January 1, 2024): Must file within 30 days of formation or registration.

This means if your business was established before 2024, you need to submit your BOI report by the end of 2024. For newer entities, the filing must occur within a month of their establishment.

3. Avoiding Penalties

Failure to file your BOI on time can result in severe penalties, including:

• Fines: Up to $500 per day for non-compliance.
• Criminal Penalties: In some cases, failure to report can lead to criminal charges, with fines up to $10,000 and even imprisonment.

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast. Okay, everybody. Welcome back to the buying a home. Don't panic podcast today, we are going off topic big time. We're going to be talking about Boi. Boi is the beneficial ownership information report that if you're a business owner, you need to get filed by this year, which would be 1231, 24 otherwise you could wind up paying up to $500 a day in penalties, fines. Correct. Yep, that's correct. Okay, so today I'm sitting here with James Walsh, who app happens to have a website that caters to exactly this, and it's called boi filings with an s.com Hi, hi. Very

James Walsh: 0:54

nice to meet you. We go back like 20 years, me and this guy. So tell everybody how important this is, Jamie and let them you know, what are the steps to get this done? There's a lot to talk about here. Absolutely go for it. The boi filing is a new filing that all businesses need to do. There's 42 million businesses across the United States and internationally need to do this filing. The filing. The requirements of doing the filing is, if your company makes under 500 assuming if it makes under$5 million in revenue, then you must provide this filing. The filing is due by the 31st of December of this year. I do advise everybody to do this filing prior to that, because the problem is, is they have not had the amount of people that need to do the filing actually use their government system yet. And I'll explain to you why. There's only 3.9 million people that have actually done the filing so far. So you have an extreme amount of people that still need to do this filing, right? So what they're afraid of is they're afraid that the system is actually going to crash. So the nice thing about using our system is we have an API direct with the government service. Okay, so you, when you we do the filing for you, you're going to have that filing done within a couple of hours. So benefit of using us, another benefit of using us is you're going to have to do the boi filing continuously as your business ages. And I'll explain to you right if you make any changes, such as a name change, a business address change or a phone number change, you're going to need to do another boi filing 30 days or less after that change has been done. Otherwise, once again, the $500 a day per start per day, right? So this is going to be quick, yeah, you're going to need to be very educated with this filing in the first couple of years, right? So

John Laforme: 3:13

my my first question with your response there, my first question from that is, you say, any kind of a change with the business. Now, what about if the CEO changed, or the secretary changes? That matter.

James Walsh: 3:27

Know that if the CEO changes, or any large position of holding 25% or more or has a controlling entity, now that's the key word they haven't really defined clearly. But if you're a controller of the company, meaning you're an operating manager, you have to put yourself down as a beneficiary, representative of that company. And I'll give you an example. Say there is a homeowners association, or homeowners association, they have lots of people that are listed as those agents in that company, they're going to need to all put their names down as a beneficiary owner, otherwise that organization could be liable for the $500

John Laforme: 4:15

a day fine. Hear that HOA people get on it. I used to be an HOA president. Did you really hated it? Explain what FinCEN is.

James Walsh: 4:25

Fincin is an organization that was spoke it was really It used to concentrate on banks and credit unions and stuff like that, and they would try to find bad actors that were basically money laundering. This is a new law that people have passed through. I don't know why they've created this new law, but I'll tell you some facts, and then people who make the determination themselves sure this is going to go through this year. There's. I think that's going to stop it. Technically, there are a couple of lawsuits, but now what they're willing to do is they're willing to allow the people that are in that lawsuit to maybe not be able to do the boi, but everybody else is still required to do that filing. The problem is, is they were supposed to allocate $11 million per state so that people would be educated. Know that this law is coming about. They drew all of that money back because of the war in the Ukraine and Israel. So you have this new law coming in. And really the people that are educating people are registered agents, lawyers, CPAs. That's

John Laforme: 5:44

how, that's how I found out at first, I got a letter from my my an email from my accounting firm, and then I got a email from my attorney. Yeah, that's how I found out about this. Otherwise I wouldn't know.

James Walsh: 5:56

Well, we are basically a system provider for people like that. To do the filing is very inexpensive. It's$8.95 you hold, we hold all of your information on a secure database, so if you want to access that at a later point in time, you can do that. And that's really beneficial, especially if you have a couple of owners. Also, this is another reason you have to do the boi filing. Let's say that your ID that you uploaded with them expires. You need to do the boi again because you need to upload your new ID. So the system, it basically notifies you when your ID is going

John Laforme: 6:38

to your system. Our system, yes, yeah, your system. Okay. So

James Walsh: 6:41

we basically are a system provider for lawyers, CPAs and accountants, right?

John Laforme: 6:47

So once so, once again, everybody listening, the website is boi filings with an s.com that's how you can get to Jamie's website that he's talking about right now.

James Walsh: 6:58

That's great.

John Laforme: 6:59

So all right, and by the way, FinCEN Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, it's a government agency. If you had never heard of it before, that's what he's talking about.

James Walsh: 7:10

I talk about it so much. I assume that people know what I'm

John Laforme: 7:14

doing. Yeah, not on this show. We can't assume anything on this show. Sometimes I'm like, you know, when I'm on here, I learn a lot just from having a guest on, and that's why I like doing it. You know, I don't, I don't know everything my guests are going to say, and sometimes I'm just like, Whoa. Where the hell that come from? But I'll tell you what, what gets my attention with this thing is the daily fines. Yeah, that is insane.

James Walsh: 7:35

Well, they have actually, in the hearing that they just had, they're actually going to be adding interest for each day. So it's not actually$500 it's more than $500 I think it's 500 and sounds like an IRS bill, yeah? And those are the people who are going to collect. Is there IRS? Yeah.

John Laforme: 7:55

Oh, that sounds convenient. Yeah. Oh boy, yeah. So I should shut down my business tomorrow. Well, if

James Walsh: 8:00

you shut down your business tomorrow, that's another reason you have to do the better. Why? Because even if you close it down and it's operating even for one minute in 2024 you have to do a

John Laforme: 8:11

report. I've already filed mine just so you know. Okay, so everybody knows I am done. And this was, this took place about a week ago. My accountant had actually done it for me. After they said they said they weren't going to do it. They wound up doing it for me. I'm like, okay, so they did it for me. So I'm set. I did get my certificate. Good for you. I got that. I saved it, I screen grabbed it. So if anybody says I owe money, I'm going to have to show them what's up. So what else now? A couple things. There's a couple things that I noticed about reading up on this boi, and there's 23 exemptions, yes, and they are basically, if you're, like an agency, insurance companies, stuff like that. Do you have to happen to

James Walsh: 8:55

have that memorized? No, I don't have that actually memorized. Insurance companies, nine times out of 10, it's if they're the provider, meaning the carrier of the insurance, or the broker. If they're the broker, no, they're still required to do that. If they're the carrier, then they'll be making over 5 million. So it won't it won't affect them.

John Laforme: 9:14

I see. So why is that? Why is it that if you make so much money, you don't have to do this. But if you don't make that much money, you have to do this. Do you happen to happen? Know what that is, what defines that, and who, who made up that rule, and why that's that's an interesting one. Well,

James Walsh: 9:31

the Congress made up all of the rules. I don't know why they did that. Seems very similar to a poll tax. And a poll tax is used when they have a war. But I have no idea why they're doing this. They have mentioned in the last meeting that they had that they won't be going after all individuals. They'll only be going after the individuals that they're trying to indicate that. Are using corporations for crimes, right, laundering and stuff like that, bad actors, I would not rely on that. I would just follow the law so that, so that you don't get a tax lien on your business, right? You know, because they're very, very serious about you following this, this new legislation,

John Laforme: 10:24

right? So here's a question for you, as far as who does, who is required for this? I'm just a one guy operation here, one man band. I play all the instruments, so I have to do it. Yes. Now after, let's say I had 20 employees, would I have to do it? Then, does it matter?

James Walsh: 10:43

And the amount of employees doesn't matter. It's the ownership of the business, okay? So that's all it is, yeah, if you own 25% or more, or if you're in but then the operating agents in the business is very vague, even when they had, I went to the hearing in Washington, DC, and people ask that question, and they weren't really definitive on their response. They were just saying, Please name the people that are controlling the corporations. And that is a requirement, I think. If you do the filing and you you put all of the actual 25% owners of the corporation. And the if you do have people operating the company for you, you'll be fine. So just follow the directions of what they're requiring for you. And you must upload an ID as well,

John Laforme: 11:36

which is, which is what I had to send my accountant. Yeah, you had

James Walsh: 11:39

to, you have to have an active passport, or you can have an active ID, like a state ID or a driver's license. It's what I used. Yeah, yeah. If you don't want to share your actual address, I'd suggest that you use your passport, because your passport doesn't have your address on it.

John Laforme: 11:58

That's true. So what if, and now, is there any any stipulation on this, or any difference for let's say someone's a sole proprietor, an LLC, an S corp, a C Corp. None of that matters. None of that matters. None

James Walsh: 12:10

of that matters. Everybody.

John Laforme: 12:11

That's what I want everybody to understand, like, what's important and what's not? So what's important is who runs that corporation. That's all they want. They want your information. They want to know your shoe size and all that good stuff. I

James Walsh: 12:24

wouldn't wait until the December 31 because we're all expecting in the industry that the system will crash. Now the problem is, is, if that system does crash prior to 2024 they will not be 2525 they will not be doing any exemptions, because they're saying that you have the entire year of 2000 or to do the filing. That's true. So it's really it's coming down to crunch time now. Yeah, so,

John Laforme: 12:53

I mean, I was just made aware of this, like, two weeks ago, right? And you and I happened to run into each other because you called me for another home inspection. So that's right, that's how all this, like, just transpired, like, it was like, Great timing, and I was like, wow. So just so everybody knows this went into effect, January 1, 2024 and here we are now today's November 12, 2024 I mean, 10th, November 10, 2024

James Walsh: 13:19

if you started a corporation in 2024 Yep, then you got 90 days to start the to file. The boi, right? It really, the law really states that you have 30 days. But they did an extension to 90 days so that you people could get used to doing the filing.

John Laforme: 13:38

But prior, prior to starting a business in 2024

James Walsh: 13:43

No, they gave you the whole year. Yeah, they gave you the whole year. Yeah, they gave you the whole year. Yeah. And now you're going to be, everyone's going to be required to have it by to the first of January, 2025

John Laforme: 13:55

Right, right? So if you, if you anybody out there listening, has a business, if you're not sure what to do, don't do this. Don't ignore this. We're stressing this to you. Do not ignore this. Call your accountant, call your lawyer, make sure everyone's on the same page, and then go to boi filings with an s.com and Jamie can set you up there. Like I said, is what 895 you said, yeah, it's 895 it's not going to break the bank. And that's just for entry level. How

James Walsh: 14:27

does that work? No, what that basically does is that's for entry level. If you have more boi filings that you need to do, for example, you have multiple companies. Okay? You know you can, you can add as many companies once you're inside of the system. Okay? It's not difficult to use. We have a call center as well, so you're more than welcome to call the call center, and they can help you through and we also have a support desk that can help you on the website as well. So

John Laforme: 14:53

if you don't mind me asking, When did you when did you build your site? Was at the beginning of this year? Middle?

James Walsh: 14:58

No, we built this last year. Hmm, the company that actually manages this is called legal registration. Okay, we have another website called legal registration.com, and they we do corporate filings and establishment of corporations, registered agents, okay, stuff like that. So we were very educated that this law was coming into effect. So we built the software last year, and it's actually been in operation. And we, I think we were the first group of companies that actually got the API with the government system, and they've actually stopped giving the API for some reason, because they're worried about bad actors in the industry. So

John Laforme: 15:42

there's a scam on every level. Man, right, yeah. So here's an interesting thought. So let's say if it's if what they say is true, the reason why they're doing all this is to, you know, go after bad actors, business, illegally run businesses, whatever they're laundering money, whatever the hell they're doing. So let's say they come across one and that company doesn't want to file. I wonder how they're going to approach that, like, how are they going to approach that? So first of all, the company is not filing. There's they're finding them every day, and they're ignoring them. What are they going to do? Send in the Gestapo or what?

James Walsh: 16:21

That's a good question. I mean, if you do the calculations of, okay, you have 3.9 million that have done the actual filing so far. In total, you've got 42 million businesses, let's say another 10 million. Does that do that filing? You've still got 30 million people that are going to get fined if you do 30 million times 500 I mean, do the math. Let's just do that in a week. I mean, it's astronomical. I mean, I mean, it's probably gonna fix a lot of problems tax wise, and it's gonna bring a lot of money into the government. And I would, I mean, if people are not going to do it in the beginning, there is going to be some point where that system is going to be overloaded, where you cannot do that being why filing right for a specific, specific amount of time? And when that happens, people are going to get

John Laforme: 17:14

some big bills in the mail, in the mail, big bills in the mail, and a lot of a lot of send them a box of tissues, because they'll be crying, they'll definitely be crying. I'd be crying if I got one of those. Oh, yeah, if no one told me,

James Walsh: 17:26

the maximum fine for, I think, is $250,000

John Laforme: 17:30

the maximum, maximum, yeah. Oh, okay, so they did put a ceiling on. Put a ceiling on. Well, you know, well, that's comforting. That's very company, but I'm gonna keep a close, ear out, ear out for all this, and see if anybody actually gets SNAP food in it, and see what happens. You know,

James Walsh: 17:48

supposed to be advertising on TV. I haven't seen any commercials. Not me,

John Laforme: 17:52

either. Man. I went on youtube today and checked out. There was some posts up people making videos about this. Yeah, and we'll be one of them. Yep, soon. And I'm just like, okay, so everybody seemed to have the same knowledge from what I was watching. And nothing, nothing we hadn't talked about already. Well,

James Walsh: 18:10

on our YouTube channel, legal registration.com, we've created a webinar. So if you want, Oh, you did, yeah, if you want to take the webinar, it's, I think it's 15 minutes long. It's not difficult to watch. You'll explain to you all the different parameters around this new law. And what was that website? Again, this YouTube channel is called legal registration.com. YouTube,

John Laforme: 18:33

legal registration.com. Okay, I'll check that out too, and I'll put that in the link in the description. All the websites we talked about would be in the description of the video here, guys. And what anything else you want to throw out there, but regarding this so that we need to know, or is it just the urgency? Part,

James Walsh: 18:49

urgency part, you know, you know. And if you have friends, a family that have corporations, please educate them, let them know about this law, because it's going to affect a lot of people, unfortunately, not in a positive manner. So you just really want to spread the word and let people know that this law is coming at the end of the year. Hopefully they'll have it on the news, hopefully they'll be explaining it to as many people as they can. But at this point in time, I really don't see that they're going to get the message out to the people that they really need to

John Laforme: 19:21

go. I agree, because everyone I have told in my little circle of people, they're like, huh, yeah, they don't know where bro, just just call your account, your lawyer, just make sure you're not going to get snafued into this. And,

James Walsh: 19:32

well, there's some lawyers that call us and then have arguments with us over the telephone, and they're like, we're not going to do that for our clients. And we're like, that is the wrong approach to take with this law, because this law has been in effect since 2022 so they've gone through all the different hurdles and back and forth, and a lot of people didn't pay attention to it because it was COVID. So now it's the the last moment where. Everybody needs to be compliant.

John Laforme: 20:01

So earlier you mentioned a poll tax. So do you have details on what a poll tax is?

James Walsh: 20:06

Yeah, poll tax is basically this has been going through with all different countries, and that's basically how they generate money in time of war, and they used to charge a specific amount of money to it per family or per household. But this law looks very similar, similar to a poll tax, but it's really being given to the middle class. So this is, this is a tax people who are running their business. So I paid enough taxes on my business, right? So if you make the mistake of not doing this, you could be liable for a hefty bill. Now,

John Laforme: 20:47

a lot of people, a lot of people that are anti government, are going to be like, No, I ain't doing it. They're going to fight back and let me, let me finish my thoughts. I know you're going to say something, but I'm just thinking they're going to be pushing back. But let's see you already have a business. Well, if you have a legit business, the government already has your information. They already know your name correct. Yeah, okay.

James Walsh: 21:12

They they already know you have it. They have an EIN you have an EIN number. That's not how they get getting your information. What they've been doing with the banks is when you go and sign up for a bank account for the last three years in the forms, they say, please sign this. This is for your BEN boi filing. So they know when you if you have a bank account in the United States, they already have your information on your bank and they already have your information on your name, right?

John Laforme: 21:39

So, so, so giving that, what I'm trying to get at is if, if anyone out there is a doubting Thomas, and they're just like, No, I don't want to do this above, but they are these people already have that information. Yeah, they're just making you fill out a different form. They're not asking for anything else that we we, we didn't already they wouldn't already have, am I right? Basically, yeah, yeah. So that's what I'm saying. So if anyone's pushing back on this, I think it's foolish, because one, it only costs 895, on your website, right?

James Walsh: 22:07

And two, access that later on down the road, right? Especially if you have multiple partners, right? When you have multiple partners, it's difficult to get hold of them, to get their information again, to get their new ID, so all of that and and also, the system will email them directly, right, if the change needs to happen, right?

John Laforme: 22:26

Yeah. So don't be freaked out, people. If you're, I know a lot of people out there anti government. Every time something pops up, they're just like, ah, they got the guns out and everything. Yeah. Revolution,

James Walsh: 22:36

I hope. No,

John Laforme: 22:38

a boi revolution. Anyway, I just wanted to point out, point that out, this is information that you've already given up to the bank or to the government already because you got an EIN number you're paying 10 if you're legit. I'm only talking about as legit people out there, and I think the reason why they're doing this is to catch the people that are not legit.

James Walsh: 22:58

Well, when they started putting this into effect, a lot of the states gave them a lot of pushback. So they wouldn't share the information with them. I'm talking about the secretary of states in each of the different states, right? So they bypassed that by doing it with the banks. So if you open the bank account, now they have your information because you they do that filing with as a requirement of them being an actual bank now, it's

John Laforme: 23:25

standard procedures. Now, standard procedure like, if

James Walsh: 23:28

you go and open a bank account, you'll see that your boi information is being given to them already. Hmm,

John Laforme: 23:35

that's a good point there. Mr. Walsh, all right. All right, sir. Everybody. Once again, it's the urgency part of this. That's why we're doing this podcast. This is not about my typical buying a home. Don't panic type of content, but this is important stuff, especially for your business owners. So take care of it. Once again, James has a website. It's boi filings with an s.com and you get on there and animal feet, 895, probably, for most people, that's great. And how long does it take for them to get through the process?

James Walsh: 24:07

Take them about five to 10 minutes to go through the process. If you shop around, you'll see that we're the cheapest in the entire market. We're a system provider for all lawyers, accountants and CPAs. So now this price gets pushed onto the general public, where we're trying to promote, and it's only $8.95

John Laforme: 24:26

and here's a tip for everybody, before the tariffs take place, you might want to get this done. Thanks, Jamie, you're very welcome, sir. Thanks

James Walsh: 24:33

for being on your show. Thank you. Thank you. You.