Proposed Federal Legislation Concerning Beneficial Owners of US Corporations
This is a storm that has been brewing for a long time and talk like this makes the all of the folks related to the incorporation industry here in Delaware very uneasy.
SB 2956
A bill to ensure that persons who form corporations in the United States disclose the beneficial owners of those corporations, in order to prevent wrongdoers from exploiting United States corporations for criminal gain, to assist law enforcement in detecting, preventing, and punishing terrorism, money laundering, and other misconduct involving United States corporations, and for other purposes.
Current Bill Status: May 5, 2008 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Read the full text of SB 2956 (PDF)
To put thing into perspective for what Federal Legislation like this could mean to Delawareans; the collection of corporate franchise taxes, corporate income taxes, and corporate fee contributed about $775.3 million to the Delaware General Fund in 2007.
Are you saying that a significant portion of the owners of these corporations are criminals?
Actually, the premise behind this bill makes a lot of sense. No one wants to protect “wrongdoers”, and we certainly be making every effort as a Nation to protect what remains of our global image.
The question I have is why put the burden on the States? The Federal Government already has massive agencies which we all as US citizens pay tax dollars to fund; they should regulate beneficial ownership information. Case in point, what about the IRS? Isn’t every corporate entity technically required to file a federal income tax return- even if they don’t own any taxes? Couldn’t, or rather shouldn’t the Federal Government simply collect beneficial ownership information at that time? All of that is practically done electronically these days anyway. Put the info into a database, where it can easily be stored, sorted and accessed by the courts, law enforcement or those who subscribe and pay a fee (go capitalism!). We as US taxpayers don’t need to fund any new agency, or pay for any new staff at all. It almost sounds progressive.
So what is the problem with that?
I don’t know. You tell me.