NFIB President Brad Close has called on Congress to repeal the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements, describing them as invasive and unnecessary. In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s The David Webb Show, Close highlighted that while the Trump Administration ended enforcement of the mandate, legislative action is still required to fully remove it.
“President Trump and the Administration have done a wonderful job on this issue trying to help small businesses, but we’re at the point now where Congress has to act and that’s the key point. We are asking Congress to not only repeal this law, but also to mandate that all the data that some small business owners – millions of them – have already put into the system because they were required to [be destroyed] so this personal information is gone. The Trump Administration has been great. Their Treasury Department has said that they are going to put out a rule at the end of the year, and that rule will contain a requirement to destroy the data. But what the Administration can’t do is repeal a law that’s on the book and this is a really, really bad law on the books and only Congress can do that,” Close said.
He further explained: “To remind listeners, this law was created in [2021] and it requires only businesses with 20 or fewer employees to report their personal business information and that of their co-owners and that of their managers and people who have a significant stake in the business, to a brand-new federal government database under the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, part of [the Treasury Department]. So, a lot of people in Congress supported this. Now, a lot of them have come around and realized that this was a mistake. I think having the president out there reminding them that this was a bad idea is very helpful, but we still need to get them across the line. So, while a lot of them have changed their minds or come around part way, we need to get them to vote on this, to put it on the floor and to repeal it and that’s got to happen, we think by the end of this year.”
Close recently wrote an op-ed in National Review advocating for immediate congressional action against these regulations.
The NFIB has opposed BOI reporting requirements for over six years through advocacy efforts in Congress, executive agencies, and federal courts. According to NFIB estimates, if not repealed, approximately 32 million small businesses could be affected by these mandates nationwide. Non-compliance could result in criminal penalties including up to two years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) represents small business interests across all 50 states and Washington D.C., maintaining its focus since its founding in 1943.
