Why did the Corporate Transparency Act Concern Farmers?

A court in Texas has hit the pause button on a federal law filing requirement a lot of farmers considered burdensome and an overreach. It is a big story, so we’re going to be talking about that decision both today and tomorrow.

The Corporate Transparency Act, or CTA, required certain businesses to report ownership information by January 1 to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Jake Parker is Secretary and General Counsel for the North Carolina Farm Bureau. Parker says Congress' intent was to combat money laundering and organized crime funding…

“The concerns a lot of farmers I heard from, and even our insurance agents had about the law was that the reporting requirements were so intrusive, you have to upload a federal photo ID, you have to provide a bunch of background information about your business, and you're essentially loading it into a government portal and trusting them to keep it safe. And in this day and age, a lot of people, unfortunately, don't have that trust in government to do what it says sometimes.”

The court determined that the law is likely unconstitutional and needed to be halted. We’ll give you more of their reasoning tomorrow, right here on the Ag Information Network.