Corporate Transparency Act Beneficial Reporting Still on Hold Nationwide – Stay Tuned


2 minute read | January.27.2025

On January 23, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated one nationwide stay (Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc. v. McHenry  – formerly, Texas Top Cop Shop v. Garland) which blocked the U.S. government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its implementing regulations nationwide. 

However, a nationwide stay of the CTA issued by a different district court in Texas (Smith v. U.S. Department of the Treasury) on January 7, 2025, remains in place.

As a result, companies affected by the CTA are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s action in Texas Top Cop Shop.

Reporting companies also are not subject to liability if they fail to file this information while the Smith order remains in force. It remains to be seen if the new administration at the Department of Justice will seek to have the district court handling Smith conform its stay to the U.S. Supreme Court’s order in Texas Top Cop Shop.

Given the uncertainty about whether and when CTA reporting will be required, reporting companies that choose not to file while the CTA remains enjoined would be prudent to conduct the necessary analysis and information collection so they can file on short notice if necessary.

Following an earlier lifting of the nationwide stay of the CTA (which was subsequently reversed), FinCEN had announced an extension of only 12 additional days to the prior filing deadline. It remains to be seen whether FinCEN would act similarly under the new administration.