New FinCEN-SBA Law Mandates Joint Effort to Help Small Businesses Avoid Beneficial Ownership Penalties

When the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) kicked in, requiring millions of small businesses to report who truly owns them (Beneficial Ownership Information, or BOI), a lot of owners felt like they were drinking from a firehose. This new FinCEN–SBA Coordination on Beneficial Ownership Registration Act is the government’s attempt to hand them a cup.

This bill mandates that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)—the folks who track money laundering—and the Small Business Administration (SBA)—the folks who help small businesses—must create a formal, written partnership within 90 days. The entire purpose of this partnership is to make sure small businesses actually know about and comply with the BOI reporting rules, which aim to stop bad actors from using shell companies for crimes like money laundering, drug trafficking, and tax fraud.

The Government’s New Compliance Strategy

This isn’t just a handshake agreement; the new law spells out exactly what FinCEN and the SBA must do together. They are required to use the SBA’s massive network of Resource Partners (like Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, and Veteran Business Outreach Centers) to spread the word about BOI reporting. Think of the SBA as the distribution channel for FinCEN’s regulatory information.

Crucially, the information must be made available in English, Spanish, and any other languages the two agencies agree on, ensuring better access for diverse business owners. They also have to put a direct link on the SBA homepage to FinCEN’s BOI registration pages. For a busy contractor or a tech startup founder, this means the SBA website—a place they already trust for loans or advice—should become the single source of truth for these complex new rules.

Fighting Scams and Hosting Town Halls

One of the most practical requirements addresses a real-world problem: scams. Since the BOI rules went into effect, countless phishing attempts have targeted small businesses, tricking them into clicking malicious links under the guise of official government notices. This bill requires FinCEN and the SBA to create a plan to actively fight these scams and educate businesses on how to spot fraudulent communications. This is a huge win for small business owners who are already overwhelmed by compliance requirements and can’t afford to fall victim to a digital fraudster.

Furthermore, the agencies must organize in-person town halls and webinars, with FinCEN staff present to explain the compliance process directly. These events will leverage the SBA’s national and regional offices, making sure the people who wrote the rules are the ones explaining them to the people who have to follow them. This moves the process from obscure legal jargon to direct, accessible training.

Accountability and the Cost of Coordination

To ensure this coordination effort doesn't just fizzle out, the bill requires the Director of FinCEN and the Administrator of the SBA to meet every six months after the initial agreement to review progress, discuss challenges, and strategize on fixing non-compliance issues. Within 30 days of signing the agreement, and every 30 days thereafter, they must send a joint report to key Congressional committees detailing their outreach efforts, the estimated number of companies assisted, and the total number of companies that are compliant.

For the taxpayer, this means funding the administrative costs of continuous coordination, meetings, and reports. However, the intent is sound: by making compliance easier and clearer, the government hopes to increase corporate transparency, which benefits law enforcement and national security by making it harder for criminals to hide behind anonymous companies. This bill is less about creating new rules and more about making sure the existing ones actually work for the millions of everyday Americans running small businesses.