The Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. issued a notice Friday afternoon regarding an "important federal mandate."
The mandate is that nearly all businesses must register with FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
"You will need to complete the Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR).," the notice from the EDC said. "This report includes information about your entity, its beneficial owners, and, in certain cases, its company applicants. FinCEN will begin accepting BOIRs electronically through its secure filing system starting January 1, 2024. If a reporting company already exists as of that date, it must file its initial BOIR by January 1, 2025. If a reporting company is created or registered to do business in the United States between January 1, 2024, and January 1, 2025, it will also need to file."
They must be complete before they can be filed with FinCEN as any BOIR that have items marked with a red asterisk (*) left blank will not be accepted.
Also, any information in fields not marked with an asterisk, but applicable to the individual, must be filled in.
For example, although the “Middle Name” field is not marked with an asterisk, the filer must provide information in that field if the individual’s legal name includes a middle name.
Completing an initial BOIR requires the following information:
- For the reporting company
- Full legal name
- Any trade name or “doing business as” name
- Complete current U.S. address
- Jurisdiction of formation (including state or tribal jurisdiction for domestic reporting)
- For foreign reporting companies only: state or tribal jurisdiction of first registration
- IRS Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), including Employer Identification Number (EIN). If a foreign reporting company has not been issued a TIN, provide the foreign tax identification number and the name of the issuing jurisdiction.
- For each beneficial owner and each required company applicant:
- Full legal name
- Date of birth
- Complete current address
- Unique identifying number and issuing jurisdiction from one of the following non-expired documents:
- U.S. passport
- Identification document issued by a state, local government, or Indian Tribe for identification purposes
- State-issued driver’s license
- If none of the above are available, a foreign passport
- An image of the document that contains the unique identifying number.
A quick reference guide regarding the process can be found here.
