Alabama’s chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business on Wednesday praised the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s final rule repealing Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements for U.S. companies.
“The BOI mandate placed an unfair burden on millions of law-abiding small business owners throughout Alabama and across the country,” NFIB State Director Rosemary Elebash said. “We thank the Trump administration for ending the reporting requirement and protecting the personal data of business owners. Congress should finish the job by permanently repealing the law.”
The BOI reporting requirements were created under the Corporate Transparency Act, which Congress passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021.
The requirement took effect in 2024 and required certain businesses to report information about their beneficial owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. Beneficial owners generally included individuals who directly or indirectly owned at least 25 percent of a company or exercised substantial control over it.
Under the final rule, U.S. companies will no longer have to submit beneficial ownership information to FinCEN. Certain foreign entities considered reporting companies under the Corporate Transparency Act will still be required to report beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals.
The rule will also exempt individuals who obtained FinCEN identification numbers from requirements to update or correct information previously submitted to the agency. It will eliminate requirements for foreign companies to report U.S. individuals who helped register them to do business in the United States and direct FinCEN to delete beneficial ownership information it holds on U.S. individuals.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the rule a “victory for common sense and American small businesses.”
“President Trump promised to cut red tape, and this final rule delivers,” Bessent said. “Treasury is eliminating a burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law-abiding business owners without compromising our national security.”
Supporters of the reporting requirement, including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and former U.S. Representative Tom Malinowski, D-New Jersey, criticized the repeal as harmful to national security and law enforcement efforts.
Warren called the repeal a “gift to cartels, criminals, and U.S. adversaries that exploit shell companies to move millions” through the financial system.
“This database was not public—it was just for law enforcement to use in investigating crimes,” Malinowski wrote on X. “It’s like Trump ordering the deletion of the FBI’s fingerprint database.”
The final rule will take effect upon publication in the Federal Register.
