How to File Your Beneficial Ownership Interest (BOI) Report
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has introduced the Beneficial Ownership Interest (BOI) Report—a new federal requirement which mandates that private companies disclose details about their beneficial owners (those with 25% or more ownership, even if their stake is indirect or divided across multiple entities). You can read more in our blog post.
We highly recommend completing the BOI Report as soon as possible to avoid penalties for non-compliance. If your business was formed prior to 2024, you have until January 1, 2025 to complete it. If your business was formed in 2024, you have a 90-day window to complete. Any businesses formed after January 1, 2025, will have a 30-day window to submit the BOI Report.
This filing can be completed electronically through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) website and there are no payments required. If you are seeking assistance with completing the BOI Report, we are recommending that you use TRUSS BOI eFile. To get their help, all you have to do is click this link, complete the questionnaire, and pay the filing fee—they'll hold your hand through the filing process and make sure you get squared away.
Filing Instructions
Visit the FinCen website (https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/)
Click “Get Started” under the “BOI E-Filing” section (screenshot below).
The BOI Report is available to prepare offline at your own pace (select “Prepare BOIR” under the “File PDF BOIR” section, then once you have finished, you would come back and select “Submit BOIR” in the same section), or you can complete the filing now by selecting “Prepare & Submit BOIR” under “File Online BOIR”.
- The online submission includes 4 sections:
Filing Information
Reporting Company
Company Applicant(s)
Beneficial Owner(s)
FILING INFORMATION
This section consists of two questions: 1) Type of Filing, and 2) Date Prepared.
If it is your first time filing, for Type of Filing you would select “a. Initial Report”.
The Date Prepared will auto populate online.
Click “Next.”
REPORTING COMPANY
Requesting to receive a FinCen ID is optional (A FinCEN ID is a unique identifying number issued to an individual by FinCEN. Although there is no requirement to obtain a FinCEN ID, doing so can simplify the reporting process.)
Enter the reporting company’s full legal name in item #5, and any DBA names under item #6. If there are multiple alternate names for the entity, click the blue “Add Alternate Name” button to reveal a new field.
Select the Tax Identification Type in item #7. For most businesses, this will be an EIN. Enter the Tax Identification number in item #8.
Select the country of formation in item #10.
Enter the current address information in items #11-15.
Click “Next”.
COMPANY APPLICANTS
Items #19-23 pertain to the individual completing the report.
Choose to use either a business address or residential address in item #24, then provide address information in items #25-29.
Select an Identifying document type in item #30 then provide the corresponding information in items #31-32 before uploading an image of the document in item #33.
Click “Next”.
BENEFICIAL OWNER(S)
Enter the legal name and date of birth for the first beneficial owner in items #38-42, their address information in items #43-47, and select an Identifying document type in item #48 then provide the corresponding information in items #49-50 before uploading an image of the document in item #51.
You can add an additional beneficial owner at the top of the form by clicking on the blue “Add Beneficial Owner” button (screenshot below).
You can then navigate through reporting the beneficial owners by clicking the number of the beneficial owner you would like to work on. If you added too many owners, you can remove extra owners by selecting the extra owner and clicking the “Remove” button (screenshot below).
SUBMIT
Include your email address, confirm the email address, and enter your first and last name.
Read the statement and click “I agree”.
Complete the Captcha and click “Submit BOIR”.