ANALYSIS: The Days of Anonymous Company Ownership Are Numbered

The next 15 months will be busy ones for corporate practitioners and their clients as they assess how to implement the final beneficial ownership information regulations issued under the Corporate Transparency Act.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule at the end of last month that requires certain entities to submit specified ownership information to the bureau. But larger corporations are exempt from the act’s reporting rules, so the burden of compliance will fall most heavily on small businesses, since it’s unlikely that a reporting exemption applies to them.

The rule details who must file, ...