Mergers & Acquisitions

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional. Read more about the update here.

Since 2016 the Financial Crimes Network of the Treasury Department (“FinCEN”) has issued orders requiring title insurance companies to report certain non-financed residential real estate transactions to entities and trusts above a certain price threshold. These “Residential Real Estate Geographic Targeting Orders” or “GTOs” are limited to certain locations in the United States. 

FinCEN published a notice of proposed rulemaking on September 28, 2023 and the final regulations were just promulgated on November 30, 2023 that would extend the initial filing period to 90 days. The new rule, along with the CTA, becomes effective on January 1, 2024.

Unfortunately, there are always people out there looking for new ways to steal our personal information.  The latest scam?  Sending ominous warnings that personal information must be filed immediately with bogus or non-existent entities pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act.

Under the Corporate Transparency Act companies are generally required to report detailed information about their beneficial owners, commencing January 1, 2024.  On November 7, 2023, The United States Treasury issued amendments to its regulations with respect to reporting for tiered entities where the lower tier entities have precisely the same owners. 

On Wednesday, September 27, the Treasury Department announced a new proposed rule extending the deadline for companies formed in 2024 to comply with the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership and control reporting rules. 

The Corporate Transparency Act requires most existing and most new businesses to file a detailed report with FINCEN (the United States Treasury’s Financial Crimes division) detailing who the major owners and managers are.  Currently, the filing period commences January 1, 2024.

On June 27, the Federal Trade Commission, with the concurrence of the Department of Justice, proposed a burdensome overhaul of the current requirements for Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) Act filings, which are generally required for larger mergers and acquisitions. The changes stand to greatly increase the volume of documents that the FTC and DOJ receive, resulting in unprecedented delays in the merger process and placing an added burden on businesses and practitioners.