This column changes certain key advice I set forth in my column last Saturday for New Hampshire business owners who formed their businesses before Jan. 1, 2024. I apologize to readers of this column for the column’s legal complexity. However, this complexity is unavoidable.

As readers may recall from my last week’s column, on March 1, 2024, Judge Liles C. Burke, a judge in the federal trial court for the Northern District of Alabama, ruled that the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) is unconstitutional. He also ruled that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), the U.S. Treasury Department bureau responsible for CTA enforcement, may not enforce the CTA against individuals and entities located in the Northern District.

However, on March 11, the day before I wrote today’s column, the federal government filed in the federal court of appeals for the 11th Circuit an appeal of the above Northern District ruling. This appeal will probably not be decided for a few months. Furthermore, it is certain that whichever party loses in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will appeal that court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court will probably not resolve the appeal from the 11th Circuit until at least March or April of 2025.

As I wrote in last week’s column, the CTA provides that New Hampshire business owners who own businesses formed before Jan. 1, 2024 do not have to file their initial online reports to FinCEN until Jan. 1, 2025. However, in view of the above Northern District ruling and the forthcoming 11th Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court appeals of that ruling, I want in this column to advise all owners of New Hampshire business owners formed before Jan. 1, 2024 to file their reports with FinCEN as soon as possible and not to wait to do so until Jan. 1, 2025. My advice is based on my concern that if they don’t file soon, they may breach their Jan. 1, 2025 filing deadline.

As noted above, my advice in this column for the above NH business owners differs from my advice to them in last week’s column. However, on the basis of my thinking since the date of that column, I feel that I owe these business owners this change of advice.