The Corporate Transparency Act — The Most Aggressive Domestic Spying Program Since the Patriot Act

At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

These words reflected the general and growing distrust of the government.

Today, this quote could be reinterpreted to say, “I’m from the federal government, give up your personal data, and as long as you don’t step out of line, we will keep you safe”. Not as snappy but truer today than ever before.

By the end of this year, every citizen in the United States will be required to hand over the personal data of their small business, S-corp, LLC, HoA, Board of Directors, Trustees, Real Estate Holdings, etc., to the Federal Government’s law enforcement database, operated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) under the Department of Treasury. Welcome to the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

President Trump saw this act for what it was, just another way for the Federal Government to target the middle class and their political enemies. President Trump vetoed this unconstitutional power grab in 2019, but it’s back.

In an unprecedented act of overreach, the Federal Government is moving to aggressively collect data on all small business owners, who make up the backbone of the U.S. economy, for reasons that seem “murky” at best.

The sole goal appears to be setting up yet another new database of citizens to monitor, observe, and punish. The Feds are moving to implement the CTA at warp speed, and in seeming total secrecy, as the majority of the millions of small business owners in the United States have no idea this law even exists.

By not informing the public, it seems as if FinCEN’s true intent here is to “catch” millions of small business owners in “non-compliance” so that they can be investigated and audited by the Department of Treasury and punished.

Your mandatory compliance is required by January 1st, 2025, or you could face massive fines, and up to 2 years in federal prison.

After President Trump’s veto, it was quietly stuffed back into the pork of the Defense Authorization Act in 2021. And so, without a word to the American public, the largest and most aggressive, warrantless domestic spying program in U.S. history was enacted into law.

Never heard of it? Join the club! Millions of U.S. small business owners have no idea this law exists or that they are required to be in full compliance by January 1, 2025 or they will be subjected to hefty fines of $591 dollars per day.

Failure to self-report to FinCen’s law enforcement database carries up to 2 years in federal prison for being in violation.

As a Brit, I am no stranger to government overreach and tyranny, but I still have a few questions.

My first question is why are U.S. Citizens who have committed no crime – and where no probable cause exists to believe they have committed a crime – being required to self-report into a law enforcement database, solely on the basis that one day they might commit a crime?

There was a very popular movie in 2002 called the “Minority Report.”

The premise, as I recall, is that there is no longer any crime because law enforcement relies on the use of“pre-cogs” to predict who will commit a crime, and then the “pre-crime” bureau goes out to arrest that individual before they ever commit a crime, in order to ensure they don’t commit the crime that they never committed, in the first place. Seems perfectly reasonable?!

So in addition to “defund the police” and the “thought police”, we now have the “pre-crime” police housed under FinCEN at the Department of Treasury. Didn’t the IRS Union, also under the same Department of Treasury, just endorse Kamala Harris for President? What could possibly go wrong?

Does anyone remember the Lois Lerner IRS scandal? The IRS was forced to admit that it, specifically, targeted conservative non-profit groups for added scrutiny, with the intent to punish and/or deny their non-profit status based on the whims of an unelected partisan bureaucracy operating out of the Department of Treasury.

The IRS was, ultimately, forced to admit that it used political partisanship to target Americans, and they entered into a settlement with the non-profit groups they targeted.

Did I mention that no one was ever held accountable or served any jail time for the unlawful targeting by a federal agency of American Citizens on the basis of political affiliation? But you, as a small business owner, will surely go to jail if you fail to comply with the Corporate Transparency Act.

The Corporate Transparency Act is the “for profit” equivalent of the Department of Treasury’s partisan overreach and scrutiny. At that time, non-profits with the word “tea party” and “patriot” were targeted, politically, by the IRS and subjected to further scrutiny and/or outright denial of their 501c3 status.

Under the CTA, say an overtly aggressive anti-second amendment bureaucrat decided to do a word search for “gun”, “firearm”, “patriot”, “freedom” – you get the idea – they would have a ready list of small business owners to target, and potentially investigate and audit, for something as simple as a name. It happened before with conservative non-profits, think it can’t happen again with for profit businesses?

Under the CTA, for profit business entities with fewer than 20 employees and less than 5 million in revenue are in the cross hairs. Yes, you read that correctly, if you make more than 5 million dollars annually, or employ more than 20 full time employees – you are EXEMPT from this invasive self-reporting requirement that could land you in prison.

That means, Blackrock, Amazon, Facebook, Pfizer Apple and ExxonMobil can operate “business as usual”, but “grandma’s donut shop” will be required to show her “paper’s please”, if she wants to make a living.

Business registration and entity creation is, and has always been, handled at the state level through state corporation commissions or like organizations.

Why is the federal government overreaching into a state rights issue and creating a massive federal database in violation of the commerce clause?

This means that even though you are a registered entity at the state level, if you do not self-report and register at the federal level, you will not be able to operate your small business.

Why aren’t the State Attorney General’s weighing in on this issue? I hope that is not a rhetorical question.

CTA is the last nail in the coffin of what remains of the illusion of a “free market” economy in the United States and it is a massive economic surveillance program with little to no discernable oversight.

People are slowly starting to take notice, so there is still time and hope. Just weeks ago the Community Associations Institute filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Treasury challenging the application of the Corporate Transparency Act.

But the CAI, and other small business owners who have also filed suit, cannot do this alone.

A federal judge in Alabama has already ruled this law “Unconstitutional”, yet the Federal Government continues to move full speed ahead, and with little regard for the Constitutionality of this unprecedented overreach.

More interesting, still, is that the ruling of “unconstitutionality” was ruled to only apply to the plaintiffs in the case, setting a very dangerous legal precedent whereby if you complain you get to keep your Constitutional rights, but if you don’t, you lose them.

Both camps – republicans and democrats – need to weigh in on this before November. This is the most dangerous step the United States has ever taken towards nationalizing small private business ownership under a federal umbrella.

A tactic long practiced and executed by Marxist governments. This needs to be a front and center campaign issue to protect over 33 million small businesses from being destroyed by the Federal government.

Small businesses employ 61.7 million Americans, totaling 46.4% of private sector employees. It’s time to stand up to this blatant attack on state’s rights that seeks to control and/or destroy the economic lifeblood of America.

Every small business owner in America needs to make their voice heard on this issue or it will be too late.

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