IT’S OVER! BOI FILING REQUIREMENT OFFICIALLY DEAD

On March 21, 2025, the United States Treasury Department announced that the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report filing requirement has been abolished. Small businesses will no longer have to file a BOI report, and this time the decision is final. This is a huge relief for small businesses who no longer have to worry about this burdensome requirement.

Going forward, only foreign businesses will have to file a Beneficial Ownership Information report. American businesses are now exempt from having to file a BOI. 

The government has not announced what it will do with the BOI reports that many businesses filed before the original due date of January 1, 2025. Our hope is that the government safely and securely destroys them so that the information is not available to anyone.

The BOI was a new mandatory report that small businesses had to file with the federal government to identify their company’s beneficial owners. It was required by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) under a federal law called the Corporate Transparency Act, which was approved by the United States Congress in 2021 to combat money laundering by companies who hide their owners. 

The timeline for the BOI has been confusing from the start. The original filing deadline was January 1, 2025 for most businesses, but that deadline was suspended by the courts in December 2024. In mid-February 2025, the BOI was again reinstated with a new deadline of March 21, 2025. 

As businesses were scrambling to meet the new deadline, the Treasury Department announced on February 27th that they would not penalize businesses who failed to file a BOI. Then on March 2nd the Treasury Department announced they would issue new guidelines that required only foreign companies to file a BOI. While this was certainly a good sign for small businesses, the official BOI website continued to say that the report was required by March 21st.

This messaging, along with the BOI’s on-and-off status since December 2024, created a lot of confusion for small businesses. Much of the information about the BOI on the Internet has not been updated and continues to say that the BOI is still required. 

It’s been very hard for small businesses to keep up with the BOI filing requirement. In fact, our own March newsletter, which was sent to the printer before the BOI suspension on February 27th, was outdated even before it was sent to our members. 

Private companies continue to email solicitations to small businesses saying that the BOI is a required filing. The FUBA offices received one of these emails as this newsletter was being written!

These companies often have names like Corporate Filings USA or EZboifilings. You can safely ignore any email you get from a private company offering to file your BOI. 

FUBA members with questions about the BOI report can reply to this email call our offices at 800-262-4483 and ask to speak with Karen. 

REMINDER: FILING DEADLINE FOR YOUR COMPANY’S 2025 FLORIDA ANNUAL REPORT IS MAY 1ST

There are only a few weeks left before the May 1st deadline for Florida companies to file their corporate Annual Report with the State of Florida. If you miss the May 1st deadline, the state will add a mandatory penalty of $400 in addition to the normal fee!

The state requires a yearly filing from all corporations and LLCs to keep the company in official active status.  This is not the same thing as the BOI report discussed above. This is a report that has been required by the State of Florida for decades.

If you do not file your Annual Report, your company’s status will go inactive and be dissolved by the state which allows someone else to take over your company’s name. It also jeopardizes any workers’ comp exemptions your officers hold. 

To file your company’s 2025 Annual Report, go to Sunbiz.org and make sure the page says An official State of Florida website at the top. This is how you know you are on the official government web page. You will need your company’s document number issued by the Division of Corporations. You can look up your document number on Sunbiz.org by clicking on “Search Records” and searching your company’s name.

BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT ANNUAL REPORT SOLICITATION EMAILS

Please be cautious about emails you receive on this mandatory Annual Report filing that are not official emails from the State of Florida. Because all companies in Florida have to file it, private companies email solicitations each year offering to file the report on your behalf.

These solicitations may be from the “Business Filings Depot” or “Reminder Department.” They look like official government notices, but they are not from the State of Florida.  

If you pay one of these companies to file your Annual Report, it could cost up to $100 more than if you filed the report yourself. 

The only legitimate email is from the State of Florida’s Division of Corporations whose email is FL_DOS_Corporations@dos.state.fl.us. 

FIRST REEMPLOYMENT TAX FORM OF 2025 DUE APRIL 30TH

With a few exceptions, Florida employers are required to pay state reemployment tax (also called unemployment tax) on the wages it pays employees. The reemployment tax is paid quarterly to the Florida Department of Revenue by filing form RT-6 (Employers Quarterly Report). 

Your business should have already received a notice in the mail from the Florida Department of Revenue with your company’s tax rate for calendar year 2025. Multiply this rate by your wages for the quarter to calculate how much reemployment tax you owe for the quarter. 

Reemployment taxes are due by the end of the month following each calendar quarter. The first tax form and payment for 2025 is due April 30th and will be for wages paid to your employees in the first quarter of 2025.

Remember that reemployment taxes are charged on only the first $7,000 of wages paid to an employee in a year. 

If your business has 10 or more employees, you must file these tax returns and pay the tax due online using the Florida Department of Revenue’s secure portal at brtx-fl-uc.bswa.net.