South Iowa News

U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (IA-03) hosted Andrea Gacki, Director of the U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), for a forum with local small businesses in Des Moines to discuss ownership reporting requirements.

“Thank you to Director Gacki for visiting Ankeny today to hear directly from small businesses on the red tape that’s making it harder for them to do business,” said Rep. Nunn. “We need to do everything we can to keep bad actors from operating shell companies on Main Street, but we shouldn’t do it at the expense of good operators. Today’s discussion will ensure that we can use the law to keep our country safe and support job creators.”

The forum aimed to address how public and private sector tools could be leveraged to protect individuals, businesses, and consumers from financial crimes. Local businesses expressed concerns about the impact of the Corporate Transparency Act reporting requirements on Iowa’s Main Street businesses.

In 2020, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act to establish new ownership reporting requirements designed to root out nefarious shell companies operated by foreign adversaries. However, during its implementation, FinCEN failed to notify small businesses about these new reporting requirements. According to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), 90% of NFIB members were unaware of these new requirements.

In April, Rep. Nunn introduced the Small Business Red Tape Relief Act to hold FinCEN accountable for educating businesses on these requirements, aiming to prevent small businesses from being penalized for non-compliance due to lack of information.