Since January 1, 2024, many U.S. businesses – including those in Florida – have been obligated to comply with Beneficial Owners Information (BOI) reporting requirements, outlined in the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). BOI reports must be submitted on time, in full, and online via the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) e-filing system.
Since the BOI report is effectively a brand new form to fill in for business owners, many are a little unsure about how it all works. Some even turn to their legal representatives or accountants to aid them in filling in and submitting their BOIR. Whether you’re filling in your own form or helping a client with theirs, BOIR software can help, as this guide will explain.
Step-by-Step BOI Report Filing in Florida
As touched on above, BOI reports are filed online with FinCEN. There’s a dedicated online platform, via which you can enter all the necessary info with ease and click to submit your form in no time. This helps to avoid any mail-related problems, like unexpected delays or paperwork being lost en route to its destination.
Here’s how to complete your BOIR:
- Identify your company’s beneficial owners. The CTA goes into detail about who is classified as a beneficial owner, so it’s worth perusing that if you’re unsure. In general, anyone who directly or indirectly exerts significant control over a business or owns 25% or more of its equity interests counts as a beneficial owner.
- Collect all the necessary information for each beneficial owner. You will need names, addresses, dates of birth, and photographic IDs – like a passport or driver’s license – and the identifying number and issuer of those IDs, too.
- Go onto the FinCEN online e-filing system and enter the information into your report. You can either do this online all at once or download a PDF file from FinCEN to fill in gradually. Either way, you’ll submit your form online when you’re done, and as long as all the info is correct, you won’t have to worry about BOI reporting again unless your ownership structure changes.
Which Florida Businesses Need to File?
In the state of Florida, along with elsewhere across the U.S., the majority of businesses need to file BOI reports. As such, it’s important not to overlook this form or to assume that your business is exempt. LLCs, most corporations, and other sorts of businesses that were formed by registering and submitting documents with the Florida Secretary of State all need to complete their BOIR.
There are exceptions to this. The Corporate Transparency Act outlines a list of 23 business entities that are exempt, which includes banks, credit unions, investment companies, insurance companies, and governmental authorities.
Is There a Deadline?
Yes, there are deadlines for filing your BOIR. However, the exact deadline for each business varies, depending on when the business was formed. Those formed prior to 2024, for example, have until January 1, 2025 to submit their BOIR. Those formed during 2024, meanwhile, have 90 days from their date of formation, and any business formed in or after 2025 has 30 days from formation to file.
It’s worth noting, too, that there are serious penalties if you miss the deadlines. You can face fines of up to $500 per day once the deadline passes, and there’s even a threat of criminal charges for businesses that continue to fail to submit. So, it’s recommended to get your reports finalized and submitted as soon as you can.
How BOIR Software Can Help
There are software solutions for everything nowadays, including BOI reporting software, designed specifically for the BOIR process. Offering a suite of useful features like cloning, data imports, and even the ability to autocomplete parts of the report for you, these apps make life a lot easier, especially for accountants who have to fill out multiple BOI reports on a regular basis.
What to Look For in BOIR Software
Firstly, it’s important to look for BOIR apps that come from trusted firms. The market is being flooded with tools and solutions at the moment, but they’re not all from trusted sources. It’s wise for users to dig into the background of each app, find out who made out, and only use BOIR software from those with experience and proven success in this field.
Additionally, here are several key features to look for in a BOIR app:
Drafts
One of the most frustrating elements of filling out multiple BOI reports is that you’re not always able to fill out the entire form all in one go. Sometimes, you might just want to enter a bit of information and then save a draft to revisit later, but that can be difficult using FinCEN’s e-filing platform.
The best BOIR apps give you the freedom to save drafts and even track the history of individual BOI reports. That means you can go back, review, or even restore previous versions of a report to save you time and improve efficiency.
Imports and Exports
You may also find that you need to prepare BOIR information on one platform before copying that info into a different e-filing system to submit a report. Usually, this would involve manually copying and pasting the info between the different platforms or typing it all out over and over.
BOIR apps solve that issue by offering import and export features, like CSV imports, which you can use to bulk import business information to multiple reports, in a matter of seconds.
Autocomplete
For those who have to fill out lots of BOI reports, filling out the same info over and over can quickly become a tedious, headache-inducing task. It would be so much simpler if the info just instantaneously appeared in the appropriate boxes.
Well, with the best BOIR apps, that can happen. Leading BOIR software can use your usage history and even your location to automatically figure out and suggest information to autocomplete parts of the BOIR for you.
Cloning
If you’re only a single business, this won’t matter much to you. But, if you have several businesses, or if you’re an accountant with a lot of clients who need assistance with their BOI reports, cloning is a must-have feature in BOIR software.
As the name suggests, cloning basically lets you make entire copies of your reports. So, let’s say you need to complete BOIRs for 10 businesses that are very similar, you can fill out the first one manually, then clone it for the nine others and just make small edits where necessary, saving yourself lots of hassle.
Real-Time Validation
It’s very easy to make a mistake when filling out a form like a BOIR, especially when you’re working on multiple forms for lots of different businesses. Even a tiny typo can have serious consequences here, as all the info provided in the BOIR needs to be accurate and compliant.
Again, leading BOIR software solutions can help. They offer validation in real-time, so they can check the info you’re entering and let you know if any errors or compliance issues are detected, so you can get them fixed before moving on to submission.
Strong Security
As mentioned earlier, you need to provide personal info for all beneficial owners when filling out a BOI report. That includes names, addresses, dates of birth, and photo IDs. That’s the kind of sensitive info that needs to be handled with care, and it could be quite problematic if it falls into the wrong hands.
For that very reason, the best BOIR apps are developed with strong security standards in mind. They feature secure databases and high standards of encryption in order to protect your owners’ info and prevent it from being lost or leaked.
Alerts and Notifications
There is a strict deadline for BOI reporting, as detailed above. However, when you have so much paperwork to file and other tasks to worry about, it’s easy to accidentally forget or delay the BOI reporting process and end up dangerously close to the deadline with your report still outstanding.
Once more, BOIR apps can help. They have built-in scheduling features and automatic alerts, letting you know when a BOIR is due and providing ample time and notice to get it filled out and submitted so you won’t incur any fines or other penalties. This is, once more, particularly handy for accountants who may struggle with heavy BOIR workloads.
Invest in BOIR Software Today
So, if you’ve got lots of BOI reports to fill out, whether that be for your own businesses or your accountancy clients, it’s clear that BOIR software is a logical and sound investment to consider. It can save you hours when filling out reports, as well as ensuring that every report you submit is accurate, reliable, and compliant. Just make sure that you use trusted software from proven sources to avoid any unnecessary risks, and look for programs with myriad helpful features to maximize efficiency.
