Corporate Transparency Act Beneficial Ownership Reporting: Compliance is Compulsory
November 25, 2024 | Carole Clark Isakson
Update December 19th, 2024 On December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc., et al. v. Garland, enjoining the federal government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its reporting deadlines. On December 13, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal in the Fifth Circuit requesting an expedited briefing schedule and a ruling “as soon as possible, but in any event no later than December 27, 2024, to ensure that regulated entities can be made aware of their obligation to comply before January 1, 2025.” Reporting companies should continue monitoring developments in the coming days in case the January 1, 2025 deadline for filing is reinstated. Ready. Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) in 2020 as part of its initiative to crack down on illicit activities, such as money laundering, commonly associated with shell companies. Under the CTA, many entities formed or registered to do business in the United States will be required to report various information concerning their beneficial owners and decision-makers. The idea behind the law is to unmask the natural persons behind a given entity. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), under the direction of the United…
Read MoreChanges Are Coming to Medicare Part D
November 14, 2024 | Cathryn Reher
The Good and Bad of These Changes First, the good news: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will cap the out-of-pocket maximum at $2,000 for all Medicare Part D plans starting January 1, 2025. Medicare Part D plans provide coverage to enrollees for prescription drugs. This will enable Medicare Part D enrollees to better budget if they have had historically high out-of-pocket prescription drug costs. The difficulty of the law change will be the impact for those who are Medicare-eligible but are enrolled through an employer or other health insurance plans. These plans are required to provide health insurance coverage that is just as good or better than Medicare standards. A plan that is as good or better than Medicare standards represents “creditable alternative coverage.” If a plan is not creditable, individuals run the risk of accruing a Late Enrollment Penalty (LEP) for each month they are not enrolled in a plan providing creditable coverage. The specific concern with the Part D law change is that prescription drug coverage under alternative insurance plans may not be as good as the new Medicare Part D coverage and therefore may not meet the creditable alternative coverage requirement. This would then require individuals to drop their employer or other health insurance plans, which are generally more cost-effective than Medicare health insurance plans. The…
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