In 2025, President Donald Trump gave small businesses one of the largest regulatory relief victories ever by exempting U.S. businesses from the burdensome and unconstitutional Corporate Transparency Act.
This little-known but highly intrusive law mandated that over 30 million small businesses register their beneficial ownership information with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Failure to comply meant small businesses could face civil and criminal penalties of up to $10,000 and up to two years in prison.
Thankfully, Trump released millions of small businesses from a mandate that few even knew existed. The president called BOI “invasive, egregious, and an economic menace” to small businesses. He was 100% right.
In freeing U.S. businesses from this mandate, the president also saved Congress from the scorn of law-abiding small-business owners. According to reports, only half of the projected 32.6 million small businesses registered with FinCEN in 2024.
If FinCEN began enforcement in 2025, over 16 million small businesses could have faced those egregious civil and criminal penalties.
Some in Congress scoff and believe it was an unlikely scenario, but that was the reality facing millions of small-business owners. And while the mandate isn’t currently being enforced, the law is still on the books. A future administration could reimpose this invasive law and the stiff penalties that come with it, punishing Main Street once again.
That is why small-business owners want Congress to solidify Trump’s victory. Congress can start by repealing the BOI mandate through H.R. 425/S. 100 or by codifying Trump’s U.S. business exemption from BOI. In addition to these bills, Congress must also require the permanent deletion of the previously submitted BOI data of the roughly 16 million small businesses that registered with FinCEN.
In September 2025, FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki promised Congress she would do just that. However, it’s been over 10 months, and FinCEN still holds the data. What are they waiting for? FinCEN should destroy this data immediately.
The Corporate Transparency Act is a well-intentioned but half-baked idea that Congress quietly inserted into a 1,000-page must-pass bill. It is a product of the smoke-filled backroom dealings that are common in Washington but the public despise.
It’s a law that is riddled with unintended consequences. Mostly, criminals will not voluntarily register with FinCEN, but law-abiding small-business owners will. In essence, all Congress has done is add red tape and compliance costs on the good guys and missed the bad guys the CTA sought to target. Once registered, the BOI of small businesses is readily available to state, federal, and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies without a subpoena. It is not a stretch of the imagination to say this personally identifiable information will be hacked, leaked, or even abused by the criminals the law was intended to catch.
SMALL BUSINESSES BUILT AMERICA — BIG GOVERNMENT IS SMOTHERING THEM
If Congress is serious about providing long-term regulatory relief to small businesses, it must make Trump’s $128 billion regulatory cost-saving exemption permanent. Doing so will prevent this threat from reemerging under a future administration.
This is a no-brainer. Help small businesses now. Lock in these massive regulatory savings before it is too late.
Josh McLeod is a director of federal government relations at the National Federation of Independent Business.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
