The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is mainly an anti-money laundering law, intended to keep bad actors from using corporations, LLCs, or similar entities to facilitating money laundering, financing of terrorism, tax fraud, and other illegal acts in the United States.

A beneficial owner is an individual who either directly or indirectly:

1. Owns or controls at least 25% of the reporting company’s ownership interests – OR –
2. Exercises substantial control over the reporting company

Beneficial ownership information is certain identifying information about the individuals who directly or indirectly own or control a company.  To comply with the Corporate Transparency Act, all beneficial owners of a reporting company are required to report the following information:

1. The individual’s name
2. Date of birth
3. Residential address
4. An ID number from an acceptable identification document such as a passport or U.S. driver’s license, and the name of the issuing state or jurisdiction of identification document
5. An image of the identification document used to obtain the identifying number in item 4.