The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is here—and your company may get caught in its net. Congress passed the CTA with the goal of combatting illegal activities by creating transparency into entities’ ownership structures. The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2024, is designed to ferret out bad actors who are difficult to detect and, as a result, has widespread reach. Millions of companies created or registered to do business in the United States must file reports containing information about their beneficial owners with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is maintaining a database housing that beneficial ownership information (BOI).

This article explores how the CTA and the related New York LLC Transparency Act (LLC Transparency Act) impact U.S. companies and foreign companies conducting business in the United States, as well as financial institutions.

Which Companies Need to Report Under the CTA?