On 1 March 2024, New York Governor Hochul signed into law the amended LLC Transparency Act (“Act”). Enacted on 23 December 2023, the Act underwent significant revisions as a result of the agreement between the Governor and the legislators. The Act requires that all limited liability companies (LLCs) formed under the New York Limited Liability Company Act (“LLC Act”) or seeking authorization to do (or doing) business in New York State disclose information about certain of their beneficial owners, or submit a statement that the entity qualifies for an exemption from this requirement. All LLCs in existence prior to 1 January 2026 must comply with the Act before 1 January 2027.

Two recent tax controversies demonstrate the authority of US courts in situations where a taxpayer’s assets are held in a country different than the taxpayer’s country of residence. In United States v. Kelly, a US person held assets in a Swiss bank account and failed to file a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR), and the court ordered repatriation of those assets to the United States. In Puri v. United States, an Indian taxpayer held assets in a US bank account, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, finalizing the district court’s order that denied taxpayer’s motion to quash an administrative third-party summons issued by the IRS.

With the new year comes the 1 January 2024 effective date of the Corporate Transparency Act, which will require approximately 32.6 million US entities to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). On 28 September 2023, FinCEN published proposed regulations modifying the BOI Reporting Requirements, which are found in the CTA’s implementing regulations.

On 29 September 2022, FinCEN released the final regulations regarding Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements which implement the beneficial ownership information reporting provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act.

On 8 December 2021, Treasury issued Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to allow the public to review and comment on proposed regulations to implement the beneficial ownership information reporting provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act. Passed on 1 January 2021, the CTA imposes on so-called “Reporting Companies” the obligation to report to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network information regarding their “Beneficial Owners” and company “Applicants.”