As of January 2024, Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reports are now required for almost all existing and new businesses in the U.S. This new requirement carries hefty penalties, but don’t worry, we’ve broken down everything you need to know about your BOI Report and how to file it.
What You Need to Know Right Now
We can’t overemphasize how important it is to take care of your BOI Report as soon as possible. The penalties for not filing your BOI Report on time are steep—there’s a $591 federal fine every day your BOI Report is late. And cases where people willfully neglect to submit their BOI Report or provide incorrect information can result in a $10,000 fine and up two years in prison.
Here’s a quick overview of when your BOI Report will be due based on when you formed your company:
| Date of company formation | BOI Report due date |
| Before January 1, 2024 | December 31, 2024 |
| Anytime during 2024 | 90 days after company formation |
| After December 31, 2024 | 30 days after company formation |
Lucky for you, our partnership with Registered Agents, Inc. means that we can form your company for you and file your BOI Report at the same time. When you start your business journey with Epik, it’s just $9 to have your BOI Report generated and filed.
What is a BOI Report?
The Beneficial Ownership Information Report asks companies to submit information (names, addresses, birthdays, and ID numbers) about anyone with major decision-making or financial control (i.e. the company’s beneficial owners). This new report is required by FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) in their new federal Corporate Transparency Act. The information that you send to FinCEN is not publicly available and is stored by the federal government in a secure online database.
While this is meant to be a one-time report for your company, you will need to submit updated reports when any of the included information changes.
What is FinCEN?
FinCEN stands for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This bureau collects information about financial transactions in an attempt to head off money laundering and other financial crimes. FinCEN works across multiple agencies, including financial, legal, and law enforcement institutions.
What is the Corporate Transparency Act?
The new Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) went into effect on January 1, 2024. The goal is to create a database of beneficial ownership information that can help to crack down on financial crimes and illicit shell companies. While the CTA can be praised for attempting to fight off threats to our national security and economic stability, the new BOI Report requirement has created a lot of extra work for small business owners.
How to Submit a BOI Report
BOI Reports can be submitted directly through the FinCEN website. Click on the “File BOIR” button, and you can either download a PDF to edit in Adobe or fill in the required information through your web browser.
Let Us Handle the BOI Report For You
We’re aware that you have more important things to do than file yet another report. You could read over the BOI Report requirements, reread them to double and triple check that you understand them, and then spend the time on a government website filling out pages of information—or you can answer a few quick questions on our website and be done with it.
Epik and Registered Agents, Inc. can file your BOI Report for you for just $9 when you take the plunge to start your new business. When you form your LLC, corporation, or nonprofit with Epik, you have the option to generate your BOI Report at the same time.
Why Choose Epik to File Your BOI Report
1. We Delete Your Beneficial Ownership Information
The BOI Report may ask you for more information than you’re used to submitting to the government. So, once we get confirmation that your BOI Report has been accepted, we delete all of your beneficial ownership information from our servers and databases. While we 100% appreciate the need to counter federal financial crimes, we believe that it shouldn’t come at the cost of your personal privacy.
2. We’re Experts in Business Filings
Our partnership with Registered Agents, Inc. gives us access to the best business filers in the industry. If any issues arise with your BOI Report, you can rest assured that we’ll be behind you every step of the way, and we can alert you to any changes to the BOI requirements that might arise in the future. BOI requirements have already changed a few times, and there are a few kinks that are still being worked out at the governmental level—that’s why we’re keeping track of the still-evolving rules and requirements for you.
3. We Can Save You Lots of Time
The forms you fill out on the FinCEN site ask many more questions that the general business owner needs to sift through. FinCEN estimates that most business owners can complete the report on their site in 90 minutes (but it can take much longer for companies with more robust business structures). When you opt into Epik’s BOI Report service when forming your new company, it will take you fewer than 10 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
A beneficial owner is anyone involved in your business who has substantial financial control or is directly in charge of major decision-making. When completing your BOI Report, you’ll need to consider anyone who is directly influencing decisions within your company and include them in the Report.
Yes, filing a BOI Report is required unless your business qualifies for an exemption (which we outline below).
It isn’t a new law in itself, but instead a requirement that comes out of the CTA (Corporate Transparency Act), which is a new law.
Yes, and FinCEN isn’t playing around. Any business that fails to file their BOI Report by the due date can face fines of $591 every day that it is late. And anyone purposefully avoiding BOI Report submission can face up to $10,000 in fines and two years of jail time.
Some companies are exempt from filing a BOI Report because they already are adhering to strict reporting requirements. There are a total of 23 specific exemptions, but the most important ones to note are tax-exempt companies, inactive businesses, and large operating companies. To qualify as exempt as a large operating company, you need to report more than $5 million in gross sales or receipts, operate and conduct business regularly at an office in the US, and employ more than 20 full-time employees.
Yes! Someone at your company can file your report, or you can hire an outside service like Epik or Registered Agents, Inc. to file your report for you.
Thankfully, no. The information you include in your BOI Report isn’t publicly available and it isn’t subject to any Freedom Information Act requests. Your Report information can only be accessed for reasons falling under the goals of the CTA in order to address financial crimes. Any other requests for this information will have to be approved by you.
It currently costs $0 to file your BOI Report if you file directly through the FinCEN website. When you hire Epik to file your BOI Report for you, it’s only $9.
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) comes out of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which itself comes from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These Acts were enacted by Congress at the start of 2021. The AMLA was created to make it much more difficult for people to commit financial crimes, and the BOI Report is meant to make it easier to identify the people committing these crimes.
A FinCEN Identifier is a unique ID number you can register for as an individual or a company. Once you register for a FinCEN ID, you can use this number on your BOI Report instead of having to resubmit your personal information. This can save you time and protect your privacy if you have to file BOI updates in the future or keep your information private when using outside filing services.
To get a FinCEN ID, navigate to the FinCEN website and submit the following information: your legal name, date of birth, address, and a unique ID number (like a social security number). FinCEN will assign a unique number to you that can be used on your BOI Report.
Yes, but only if you have any changes to submit regarding the information you originally submitted (like your reporting company’s main address or changes in who your beneficial owners are). In the case of any changes, you have 30 days from that change to send in your updates.