On December 26, 2024, a second panel of the federal Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit vacated the earlier panel's December 23rd order concerning the Corporate Transparency Act ("CTA"). The earlier order had stayed a Texas federal district court's December 3rd nationwide preliminary injunction which stayed enforcement of the CTA and, in particular, the January 1, 2025 e-filing deadline with FinCEN of beneficial ownership information ("BOI") reports. As a result of the December 26th order, the nationwide preliminary injunction is again in effect.
Following the December 23rd decision, FinCEN extended the CTA filing deadlines, but in light of the December 26th decision, on December 27th FinCEN issued an alert which states in part as follows: "[A]s of December 26, 2024, the injunction issued by the district court ...is in effect and reporting companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN."
In order to avoid an e-filing bottleneck in case CTA enforcement is reinstated and a quick deadline imposed, Montgomery McCracken's Business Department recommends that individuals connected with non-exempt reporting companies for which BOI reports have not been filed stay on top of these fast-paced developments. The matter remains on appeal and the injunction is preliminary, so more rulings and FinCEN alerts are likely.
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