Category: Guest Article of the Month

The U.S. Treasury recently enacted a new reporting requirement aimed at quashing illicit financial transactions. The agency believes that corporate anonymity is enabling money laundering, terrorism, and drug trafficking. As part of the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), certain companies are now required to report information about their beneficial owners. The goal of the new registration requirements is to create a centralized database of beneficial ownership information.

There has been push-back from some lawmakers and small business organizations, citing this as an erroneous regulatory process that just makes life harder for small businesses. Efforts to carve out exceptions or delay the implementation failed. As a result, the Treasury Department officially opened beneficial ownership information reporting on Jan. 1, 2024.

Who is Subject to Reporting?

Generally, a company may need to report beneficial ownership information if it is a corporation, LLC, or other business entity created by the filing with a U.S. secretary of state or a foreign company registered to do business in the United States. Reporting requirements for trusts and other entity types are more state law dependent.

At first glance, the rules make it look like all businesses are subject to reporting. There are exemptions, however, including nonprofits, publicly traded companies, and certain large operating companies. The FinCEN’s Compliance Guide provides an exemption qualification checklist.

Reporting Timelines and Requirements

First, you only must file an initial report once. There are no annual reporting requirements. Filing deadlines vary based on when a company was created or registered with the relevant secretary of state.

• Before Jan. 1, 2024, => Deadline of Jan. 1, 2025
• Between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 1, 2025, => You have 90 calendar days after receiving notice of the company’s creation or registration to file.
• On or after Jan. 1, 2025, => Deadline is 30 calendar days from the company’s creation or registration.

While there is no annual filing requirement, filing updates are necessary within 30 days of any changes. Ownership activity subject to change reporting includes registering a new business name, a change in beneficial owners, or a beneficial owner’s name, address, or unique identifying number previously provided.

What Do You Need to Report?

Beneficial ownership reporting must identify the following data.

At the company level, it must report:

• Company name, both legal and trade (if applicable)
• Company physical address (no post office boxes)
• Jurisdiction of formation or registration
• Taxpayer Identification Number

For each beneficial owner, the following must be reported:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Address
• Driver’s license, passport, or other acceptable identification

Depending on the situation, there also may be reporting requirements about the company applicant. This is generally a person involved in the creation or registration of the company. The same four pieces of data as for a beneficial owner would need to be provided.

As a general rule, a beneficial owner is someone who controls the company or owns 25 percent or more.

The full definition and all exemptions to whom constitutes a beneficial owner or company applicant can be found here.

No financial information or details about the business operations are required.

How and Where to File

You have the option to file online or via PDF. Filing online can be done through the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) E-Filing System on the FinCEN site.

There is no cost to file.

Conclusion and Cautions

While the reporting is simple, the requirements should not be taken lightly. Failure to report could result in civil penalties of up to $500 per day, criminal charges of up to two years imprisonment, and a fine of up to $10,000.

The message is this: Don’t wait – and don’t forget to file!

Sales and trading of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are soaring recently. With the emergence of major marketplace platforms such as Opensea, NFTs are no longer an obscure segment of the blockchain technology world. Even old guard auction houses such as Sotheby’s are getting in on the action. In early September, the auction house facilitated the sale of a set of “Bored Apes” NFTs that sold for more than $24.4 million.

While the emerging space of NFTs is full of excitement, risk and opportunity, there’s the boring tax side of the equation. Unlike most other forms of assets or income, creating, trading and investing in NFTs can trigger a tax event.  

Creators

NFTs are classified as “self-created intangibles” like other works of art. The IRS allows the artist to deduct the expenses of creating the NFT immediately – even if the artwork is not sold. As a result, the creator typically has zero “basis” in their work. This means when they do sell their work, they’ll have no deductions, so a $100,000 sale means $100,000 of taxable income.

There is little formal guidance, but general principles indicate that NFTs are their creator’s inventory instead of a capital asset. This means that this income is treated as ordinary income and not capital gains – and it is subject to self-employment taxes as well.

Lastly, with certain NFTs, while the NFT itself is a unique blockchain token, the creator might retain copyright to whatever underlying artwork was used to make the NFT. Here, the creator may sell multiple NFTs based on the same original artwork as limited-edition, signed reprints. When the copyright is retained and copies are sold, the income is considered a royalty.

Traders and Investors

Trading NFTs is not as simple as trading stocks.

NFTs are purchased with cryptocurrency (most commonly Ethereum). Since the IRS treats cryptocurrency as property instead of currency, the purchase itself creates a taxable event. Swapping your Ethereum for an NFT means you’ll have to pay tax on any gain you have in your Ethereum position between its value at acquisition and the moment of using it to acquire the NFT.

Second, taxpayers will trigger a taxable event when they sell the NFT, thereby subject to capital gains taxes on the sale of the NFT at the 28 percent collectibles rate.

Conclusion

NFTs offer fantastic opportunities at tremendous risk. As a result, there will be winners and losers, but one thing is certain: the IRS should love NFTs for the taxes.