On December 26th, the merits panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the stay on the injunction that it had issued on December 23, 2024, when a motions panel granted the government’s request to reinstate the BOI filing deadline.

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was included in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. A bipartisan amendment with support from both chambers of Congress, the CTA requires companies to report information to the federal government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) about the individuals who own or control them. The final rule implementing the legislation was issued in September 2022, and it was made effective as of January 1, 2024, with a deadline for existing businesses as of that date to file their Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) by December 31, 2024.

Based on the court’s latest action, there is no longer a filing deadline for the submission of Beneficial Ownership Information to the FinCEN (either the 12/31 original deadline or the 1/13/25 extended deadline offered by FinCEN after the original appellate decision.)

Given the last-minute back and forth of the legal rulings affecting the deadline, business owners subject to the filing deadline should continue to gather the necessary information and be prepared to file. However, for now, the original decision by the federal district court to place an injunction on the filing deadline has been reinstated, and there is no current requirement to file BOI by a date certain on the books. The appeal of the district court decision remains expedited, and the appeals court could reverse itself again in the coming days pending the outcomes of the arguments in the case.