Texas Court Enjoins CTA – Suspending the Obligation to File Ownership Information

As we reported at the ASA Quality Committee meeting this week, a Federal Court in Texas has issued a preliminary injunction against the entire Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), effectively suspending the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) filing deadline.

The CTA had required businesses to file ownership information with the federal government. The information was supposed to be used to aid law enforcement in their investigations of issues ranging from money-laundering to export compliance.

The deadline for filing your BOI information was going to be January 1, 2025; however the filing requirement is now ON HOLD because of the preliminary injunction. This means that for now you do not have to file BOI.

The case is Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc., et al. v. Garland, et al., Case No. 4:24-cv-478 (E.D. Tex.). It is likely that there will be further developments from this case, as this is only a preliminary injunction. The preliminary injunction order was a whopping 79 pages long, so it is a great read for anyone looking to understand the court’s reasoning.

This is not the first case to say that the requirement is unconstitutional: National Small Business United v. Yellen, No. 5:22-cv-01448 (N.D. Ala.) did so earlier this year; but it is the first to issue a nationwide injunction blocking enforcement of the filing requirement.

Past ASA Blog Posts on this Subject: