The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued notices extending the filing deadlines to submit Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports for certain reporting companies in response to Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Beryl, and Hurricane Francine.
To qualify, a reporting company must have a BOI reporting deadline falling within the period beginning one day before the date the specified disaster began—as indicated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) —and ending 90 days after that date. Where multiple disasters with different starting dates are related to the same storm, FinCEN used the earliest date.
A reporting company also must be located in an area that is designated both by FEMA as qualifying for individual or public assistance and by the IRS as eligible for tax filing relief.
The specific relief varies by storm. Here is the relief outlined so far:
Hurricane Beryl: Victims of Hurricane Beryl will receive an additional six months to submit BOI reports, including updates or corrections to prior reports. The deadline for the reporting company to file an initial or updated BOI report must fall on or between July 4, 2024, and October 2, 2024.
Hurricane Debby: Victims of Hurricane Debby will receive an additional six months to submit BOI reports, including updates or corrections to prior reports. The deadline for the reporting company to file an initial or updated BOI report must fall on or between July 31, 2024, and October 29, 2024.
Hurricane Francine: Victims of Hurricane Francine will receive an additional six months to submit BOI reports, including updates or corrections to prior reports. The deadline for the reporting company to file an initial or updated BOI report must fall on or between September 8, 2024, and December 7, 2024.
Hurricane Helene: Victims of Hurricane Helene will receive an additional six months to submit BOI reports, including updates or corrections to prior reports. The deadline for the reporting company to file an initial or updated BOI report must fall on or between September 22, 2024, and December 21, 2024.
Hurricane Milton: Victims of Hurricane Milton will receive an additional six months to submit BOI reports, including updates or corrections to prior reports. The deadline for the reporting company to file an initial or updated BOI report must fall on or between October 4, 2024, and January 2, 2025.
In addition, FinCEN will work with any reporting company whose principal place of business is outside the disaster areas but that must consult records located in the affected areas to meet the deadline. Reporting companies with a principal place of business outside the affected areas and that are seeking assistance in meeting their filing obligations should contact FinCEN at www.fincen.gov/boi.
If the IRS later designates other areas affected by this natural disaster as eligible for tax filing relief, the reporting companies with their principal place of business in those areas will also receive the same BOI reporting relief from FinCEN automatically.
As of January 1, 2024, many companies were required to report information to the U.S. government about who ultimately owns and controls them. This is the result of a 2021 law, the Corporate Transparency Act—or CTA—which requires reporting companies to file reports with FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Companies required to report are called reporting companies. Your company may be a reporting company and need to report information about its beneficial owners if your company is a corporation, a limited liability company (LLC), or other entity created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office in the U.S., or a foreign company formed under the law of a foreign country that has registered to do business in the U.S. by filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office.
(You can find out more about reporting companies here.)
Under the rules, a reporting company created or registered to do business before January 1, 2024, will have until January 1, 2025, to file its initial report. This is true even if the company was created years before 2024.
A reporting company created or registered on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2025, will have 90 calendar days after receiving notice of the company’s creation or registration to file its initial report—the clock starts to run when the company receives actual notice that its creation or registration is effective or after a secretary of state or similar office provides public notice of its creation or registration, whichever is earlier.
Reporting companies created or registered on or after January 1, 2025, will have 30 calendar days from the date of actual or public notice that the company’s creation or registration is effective to file their initial reports with FinCEN.
The date of creation or registration for a reporting company is the earlier of the date on which the reporting company receives actual notice of its creation (or registration) or when a secretary of state or similar office first provides public notice, such as through a publicly accessible registry, that the reporting company has been created (or registered).
As noted, unlike tax returns, there is no universal fixed date for filing BOI reports. An exception is the “first” BOI reporting deadline which would apply to companies created before January 1, 2024—that due date would normally be January 1, 2025. (Companies created in 2024 and 2025 have deadlines based on the date of creation or registration.)
Here’s how the relief would work. Consider Hurricane Milton. If a reporting company with its principal place of business in an area designated both by FEMA as qualifying for individual or public assistance and by the IRS as eligible for tax filing relief as a result of Hurricane Milton was created before January 1, 2024, the company’s initial BOI report is no longer due on January 1, 2025, and is instead due by July 1, 2025.
A reporting company created or registered on July 25, 2024, normally would file by October 23, 2024. However, if filing relief as a result of Hurricane Milton applies, the company’s initial BOI report is now instead due by April 23, 2025.
Extensions were previously granted by FinCEN for filing Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts—more commonly known as an FBAR.
By law, every U.S. person with a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, one or more foreign financial accounts with an aggregate value of more than $10,000 must annually report the account to the Treasury Department. That report is known as an FBAR.
The FBAR is an annual report generally due on April 15 (unless it falls on a weekend or holiday). It’s the same deadline as Tax Day. However, you do not file an FBAR with the IRS—you file electronically with FinCEN. Typically, if you can’t file by the deadline, you can get an automatic extension to October 15.
The IRS has already extended tax filing deadlines for individuals and businesses affected by the storms, including Hurricane Helene. That relief applies to the entire states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina andparts of Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia.
These taxpayers now have until May 1, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. That date is particularly noteworthy as it’s after the traditional tax filing deadline of April 15, 2025.
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