Buy a FinCEN Beneficial Owner Information Report

This article is a must-read for every person who will file a FinCEN BOI Report.  Do not file a FinCEN BOI report unless you understand the legal consequences of filing a false report which is explained in this article.

If you submit or intend to submit a FinCEN Beneficial Owner Information report you need to understand that you can be fined and/or imprisoned if you file a FinCEN BOI report that contains false or fraudulent information.  People who file FinCEN reports for companies that have multiple beneficial owners are particularly at risk because they have to hope that all the beneficial owners give them correct and complete information about themselves.

What if Homer Simpson lies about his legal name, residence address or birth date?  Would you know he lied?  Would you file your company’s FinCEN BOI report and hope Homer didn’t give you any false information?  Why would you file a FinCEN BOI report without first confirming that all beneficial owner information given to you is correct?

When we are hired to prepare and file a FinCEN BOI report we require EVERY beneficial owner to submit his or her information in our secure online form and digitally sign a statement that represents and warrants that all information in the questionnaire is true, correct, and complete.

Civil & Criminal Penalties in the CTA 

The Corporate Transparency Act added Section 5336(h) to 31 United States Code.  This section states:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to—

(A) willfully provide, or attempt to provide, false or fraudulent beneficial ownership information, including a false or fraudulent identifying photograph or document, to FinCEN. . .; or
(B) willfully fail to report complete or updated beneficial ownership information to FinCEN. . . .
Reporting violations.—Any person that violates subparagraph (A) or (B) . . .
(i) shall be liable to the United States for a civil penalty of not more than $500 for each day that the violation continues or has not been remedied; and
(ii) may be fined not more than $10,000, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both.

Language Contained in All FinCEN BOI Reports

Before you can submit a FinCEN BOI report you must check a box on the report that states:

I certify that I am authorized to file this BOIR on behalf of the reporting company. I further certify, on behalf of the reporting company, that the information contained in this BOIR is true, correct, and complete.

The following paragraph is immediately under the above text:

COMPLIANCE REMINDER: The willful failure to report complete beneficial ownership information to FinCEN, the willful failure to update beneficial ownership information provided to FinCEN when previously reported information changes or the willful provision of false or fraudulent beneficial ownership information to FinCEN, may result in civil or criminal penalties. A person may also be subject to civil or criminal penalties for willfully causing a reporting company to report incomplete or false beneficial ownership information to FinCEN.

The federal government is warning people who file FinCEN BOI reports that they have liability for filing a false report.

Recommendation for People Who Will File a FinCEN BOI Report

Every person who will file a FinCEN BOI report that has one or more beneficial owners other than the filer and the filer’s spouse should not file the report until every beneficial owner signs an affidavit that discloses the signer’s information and that causes the signer to represent and warrant that all the information given to the filer by the beneficial owner is true, correct, and complete.

Out Beneficial Owner Information Report Affidavit asks the beneficial owner to enter the beneficial owner’s FinCEN information into the Affidavit and represent and warrant that all the information is true, correct, and complete.  The owner must sign the Affidavit and have his or her signature notarized.  You can buy our editable Word Affidavit and customize it for your company and beneficial owners.  Don’t file a FinCEN BOI Report without confirming that all beneficial owner information is true, correct and complete.

Buy Our Editable Affidavit Form

Click here to buy our Word Beneficial Owner Affidavit for $97.  Immediately upon paying for the form our system will email a Word version of the form to the email address given in our order form.