The day the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas held its first hearing in Texas Top Cop Shop Inc., et al. v. Garland, et al., the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) urged the court to block the Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) beneficial ownership reporting requirements for small businesses.
The hearing concerned NFIB’s motion for preliminary injunction, seeking to block the reporting requirements from going into effect.
“We are relieved to see the court holding this hearing,” said Beth Milito, executive director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “For many of America’s small businesses, the beneficial ownership reporting deadline is Jan. 1, 2025. For them, time is of the essence, and they need to know whether they must comply with a reporting requirement that mandates revealing private and personal identifying information. Today, we ask the court to block the Treasury and FinCEN from enforcing the CTA and beneficial ownership requirements until this matter has been fully adjudicated.”
NFIB’s lawsuit argues the CTA exceeds Congress’s authority over the states, it improperly compels speech and burdens association, it unconstitutionally compels disclosure of private information, and the reporting rule is not in accordance with the law. The lawsuit was filed with the Texas Top Cop Shop, Data Comm for Business, Mustardseed Livestock, Russell Straayer, and Libertarian Party of Mississippi.