Here’s How A Law You’ve Never Heard Of Could Land Small Business Owners In Jail

VIA CNBC:

You can add America’s small business owners on Main Streets across the nation to the constituencies among which President Biden is struggling to sell his “Bidenomics” message.

President Biden’s approval among small business owners has hit a new low, according to the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, with a net approval rating of 30. Measured from his first days in office, the president’s approval has dropped by 13%, from 43% in the first quarter of 2021. Business owners who strongly disapprove of his handling of the presidency (56%) far outweigh those who strongly approve (13%).

The latest data, taken from a survey of over 2,000 small business owners conducted by SurveyMonkey for CNBC between November 16-21, echoes recent survey work from NBC News and others showing new lows in approval for Biden and hypothetical election rematch scenarios in which former president Donald Trump has the edge in battleground states.

We are talking about a liberal survey and he still get those numbers!

They hate Biden but also it’s no secret that the left hates small businesses.

So our Democrat overlords passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) signed into law by Joe Biden in 2021.

The law was supposedly passed to get tough on money launderers and tax evaders, but in reality it is an attack on small business owners, and as you’ll see, an attempt to send us all to prison.

You see, the CTA has a requirement that all small business owners, who own 25% or more of a small business, must register their personally identifying information with the Federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

That‘s like registering with your local police department to prove you’re not a murderer before anyone dies.

Businesses with more than 20 employees and making more than $5 million per year are exempt from filing, so this law really targets mom-and-pop shops and hobbyists, but the exemption has to be both among other requirements, and you’d be wise not to assume you’re exempt.

More than 32.5 million existing entities are expected to be subject to the CTA, and approximately 5 million new entities are expected to join that number each year.

Here are the punishments for non-compliance:
Penalties for Non-Compliance

Failure to report or providing false information may result in severe civil or criminal penalties, including $500/day fines, imprisonment up to two years, or a $10,000 fine per incident. Senior officers may also be held accountable for failure to report or for reporting false information. Furthermore, reporting companies will need to be keenly aware of any changes in the future to beneficial owners within the structure of their entities as these changes will need to be reported again to FinCEN and will be subject to the same penalties.

Reporting Timeline

– Existing reporting companies must submit their initial reports by January 1, 2025.

– New reporting companies in 2024 have 90 days post-registration to comply.

the National Small Business Association (NSBA) sued the Biden administration on behalf of its members (65,000 small businesses).

The Honorable Liles C. Burke of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that the CTA was unconstitutional and enjoined the federal government from enforcing the act against the plaintiffs of the case.
I’ll repeat that, the Feds are only blocked from enforcing the requirement for the plaintiffs in THIS case.

Here is the notice from FinCEN:

On March 1, 2024, in the case of National Small Business United v. Yellen, No. 5:22-cv-01448 (N.D. Ala.), a federal district court in the Northern District of Alabama, Northeastern Division, entered a final declaratory judgment, concluding that the Corporate Transparency Act exceeds the Constitution’s limits on Congress’s power and enjoining the Department of the Treasury and FinCEN from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act against the plaintiffs. FinCEN is complying with the court’s order and will continue to comply with the court’s order for as long as it remains in effect. As a result, the government is not currently enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act against the plaintiffs in that action: Isaac Winkles, reporting companies for which Isaac Winkles is the beneficial owner or applicant, the National Small Business Association, and members of the National Small Business Association (as of March 1, 2024). Those individuals and entities are not required to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN at this time.

If you’ve paid your dues to the Small Business Association, you don’t have to file, but if not, you’re still required to. And in their notice, FinCEN makes it clear that it’s only members “as of March 1, 2024,” so you can’t just run out and join the National Small Business Association to get off the hook.

For the rest of us, that means we need to pre-prove our innocence or risk fines and prison.

As corporate America’s embrace of social liberalism has complicated its relationship with the Republican Party, small-business owners are hunkering down and readying for “war” as President Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress get ready to enact their agenda.

“Unfortunately, the Biden administration and the Democratic Party have effectively declared war on small business as far we’re concerned,” said Alfredo Ortiz, president of the small-business advocacy group the Job Creators Network.

Climbing out of a hole dug during the pandemic, they argue small businesses cannot afford the costs of new taxes, regulations, mandates, and a minimum wage increase. They say restaurants and other companies with thin profit margins, often disproportionately affected by measures undertaken to slow the spread of the coronavirus, are especially vulnerable.