Trump Admin Won’t Enforce ‘Outrageous’ Biden-Era Small Business Reporting Rule

The Trump administration announced on Sunday that it would end an “outrageous” Biden-era regulation that required business owners to report personal data to the federal government. 

The Treasury Department said that it would no longer be enforcing penalties or fines for domestic companies in relation to beneficial ownership information reporting requirements that were implemented under former President Joe Biden. The rule required people who had direct or indirect control of a company to report their name, birthdate, address, and a unique identifying number to the Treasury Department. 

“Exciting news! The Treasury Department has announced that they are suspending all enforcement of the outrageous and invasive Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement for U.S. Citizens,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “This Biden rule has been an absolute disaster for Small Businesses Nationwide. Furthermore, Treasury is now finalizing an Emergency Regulation to formally suspend this rule for American businesses. The economic menace of BOI reporting will soon be no more.”

Advocates for the rule, which was imposed through the Corporate Transparency Act, argue it was necessary to combat money laundering while opponents said it was overly burdensome and harmed American small businesses. 

“Treasury takes this step in the interest of supporting hard-working American taxpayers and small businesses and ensuring that the rule is appropriately tailored to advance the public interest,” the department said on X. 

 The department said it would still enforce the rule against foreign companies, but would be issuing a new rule to remove the requirements for American companies. 

“This is a victory for common sense,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “Today’s action is part of President Trump’s bold agenda to unleash American prosperity by reining in burdensome regulations, in particular for small businesses that are the backbone of the American economy.”

Last month, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee introduced a measure that would have bumped the deadline for small businesses to report the required information. 

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and we need to ensure they have the necessary time and information to comply with reporting requirements from the federal government,” said Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). “This commonsense bill will ensure small businesses are protected and not overly burdened by unclear and unnecessarily complicated regulations – allowing them to focus on serving their customers while following the law.”