Goldberg Segalla’s Jonathan S. Ziss Dissects Corporate Transparency Act
Earlier this year, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) took effect and may have considerable impact on small and midsize businesses.
Jonathan S. Ziss, co-chair of Goldberg Segalla’s Management and Professional Liability practice group, recently published an article in Pennsylvania CPA Journal, highlighting important aspects of the CTA and examined whether CTA reporting compliance is an appropriate responsibility for a CPA professional.
The purpose of the CTA, according to Ziss, is to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. Effective Jan. 1, 2024, the CTA requires small and midsize businesses with fewer than 20 employees to report their beneficial ownership information (BOI) to the U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
“A beneficial owner is someone who exercises ‘substantial control’ over the company or who owns or controls at least a 25% ownership interest,” said Ziss. He went on to define and explain the nuanced aspects of what qualifies an entity as a “reporting company.”
In the second half of the piece, Ziss examines to what extent CTA reporting compliance can be performed as a CPA professional service.
“In short, this type of work may be getting into ‘unauthorized practice of law’ territory,” said Ziss. “The CPA license imposes the constraint that a license to practice certified public accounting does not extend to the practice of law. Thus, the concern from the perspective of licensure and professional liability is that the practitioner avoid the unauthorized practice of law.”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: “Is CTA Reporting a Proper Fit for the Profession?” Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs, Summer 2024
MORE ABOUT GOLDBERG SEGALLA’S JONATHAN S. ZISS:
Jonathan S. Ziss is co-chair of the firm’s Management and Professional Liability practice, chair of its Aviation Litigation practice, and a member of its Commercial Litigation and Cybersecurity practices. He devotes much of his practice to the representation of professionals, including accountants, attorneys, bankers, design professionals, insurance agents/brokers, directors and officers, and fiduciaries, in administrative and civil proceedings. He counsels and defends not-for-profit entities such as homeowners’ associations, faith-based organizations, and others, in management liability litigation as well as non-litigated disputes. Jonathan counsels clients and litigates, arbitrates, and mediates commercial disputes in a wide range of industries, from healthcare to hospitality. In addition, as a member of the firm’s cyber incident response team, he manages compliance and loss mitigation campaigns in the aftermath of data breaches.