Does the Corporate Transparency Act Blow Asset Protection

The Corporate Transparency Act requires personal information of individuals associated with business entities to be disclosed to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). However, this does not necessarily blow asset protection strategies dependent in part upon privacy.

The Corporate Transparency Act requires that the personal information of individuals associated with business entities be disclosed to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Does this blow asset protection strategies? The Act’s purpose is to prevent criminals from using businesses for tax evasion, organized crime, money laundering, financing terrorism, and other illicit activities. The disclosures should be kept confidential and used by the government with significant privacy safeguards. The information collected will not be publicly available. Many asset protection strategies rely partly on privacy, that is, on making it difficult for non-governmental actors – especially potential plaintiff’s attorneys – to find your assets. The Act does not compromise such strategies. However, the Act adds a significant administrative burden to those who maintain entities for asset protection purposes. And ignoring the Act’s requirements could result in severe penalties.