In early September the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) joined with hundreds of other groups to delay implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) which is set to be implemented on January 1, 2025.  According to Google artificial intelligence (AI),  “The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) went into effect on January 1, 2024. The CTA requires certain businesses to disclose information about their beneficial owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The goal of the CTA is to create a central registry of beneficial owners to help fight money laundering and other financial crimes.”

While the bill became law on January 1, 2024, the final date set for small business to register under this act is January 1, 2025 — approximately 3 1/2 months from now.  And, as we have learned in the Death Care business, regulation in many situations can be good.  However, in this instance, the United States Chamber of Commerce, with co-signatories such as NFDA and other organizations, penned a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson to delay the implementation.  You can see that letter here.

Civil fines for not registering your business can be up to $591 per day according to an article from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In its letter, the U.S. Chamber also argues that less than 10% of business have registered to date and that low number “can be attributed directly to the general lack of awareness among the small business community when it comes to the new rules.”  The letter continues,  “Given this massive education gap, it is clear additional time is needed for regulators and other stakeholders to continue their outreach to affected small businesses.”

According to the U.S. Chamber there are other concerns with the potential rule as quoted in their letter:

• “The CTA is unique in that it explicitly targets the very companies least equipped to shoulder its regulatory burdens. Among its various exemptions, the statute includes a carve out for entities whose revenue exceeds $5 million and which employ more than 20 full-time employees. Companies not meeting those thresholds – essentially every small business currently operating in America today – must comply.” 

• “Earlier this year, the District Court for the Northern District of Alabama found the CTA exceeded the Constitution’s enumerated powers and is unconstitutional. That case was appealed and will be heard by an appellate court next month. In the meantime, however, FinCEN continues to enforce the CTA against small businesses not named in the lawsuit. This effectively creates two classes of small businesses – the roughly 60,000 who are exempt and the tens of millions who must still comply.”

A bill – HR 9278 –  was introduced on August 2, 2024, to delay the implementation of the CTA.  It was introduced by Republican Rep. Zachary Nunn of Iowa, and has both Democrats and Republicans as co-authors.  You can follow the status of HR 9278 here.

Related Article — “What every Small Business needs to know about the Corporate Transparency Act”. U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’m certainly not an expert on financial crimes and don’t understand everything about this bill.  And, it’s also true that in funeral service we’ve sometimes learned the hard way about not having enough regulations — such as in recent cases about body brokering and lack of licensed personel in some jurisdictions.

However, Small Business in American should be protected from overburdens put on them by the United States government.  Funeral directors and funeral homes are still waiting for final rules to come from the review of the Funeral Rule by the Federal Trade Commission. . . .

Some rules are necessary, however, if funeral directors and funeral home owners are over burdened by these rules and regulations it is the families that we pledge to serve that get hurt the most.  While we should be actively helping these families we are instead filling out forms to tell the government more and more about our businesses.

While this was a law (the CTA) passed by Congress, I am still waiting to see what effects that the recent Supreme Court decision in the “Chevron ruling” has on Federal Trade Commission dictates on funeral service.  Again, I’m not an attorney but requiring decisions to be made by “the intent of the law” rather than a regulatory agency’s (like FTC) interpretation may make a difference in some decisions for the Funeral Rule.  Here is an article titled “Unpacking the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the “Chevron doctrine””.  

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