The US beneficial ownership register

Is the US becoming the new Europe? Beneficial ownership registers have long been the norm in the EU. Under the 4th and 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directives (4, 5) data on companies and their owners has been disclosed across the EU for quite some time.

That is why anonymity and privacy were for years one of the main reasons entrepreneurs moved their business to the States. No wonder the fuss over the US register, the Corporate Transparency Act, was huge and left many people unsure.

As of August 2026: The reporting requirement is off the table for US companies. FinCEN made the exemption from its interim rule of March 26, 2025 permanent with its final rule of August 11, 2026 (in force since August 14, 2026): companies formed in the US, including your LLC or corporation, no longer have to file a beneficial ownership report. Only certain foreign-formed companies registered to do business in the US still have to report, and even they don't report beneficial owners who are US persons. The sections below describe the register as it was originally adopted.

So is the US now falling in line with the rest of the world? On this page we look at the actual facts: what was meant to go into the US register and what consequences that has for you and your business in the States.

1US anti-money laundering law & the ownership register

With the Corporate Transparency Act, the US seemed set to follow the EU. It required companies to disclose their beneficial owners, the people who actually benefit from them.

All information was to be reported to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The short and snappy name of America's counterpart to the European register is FinCEN.

Beneficial owners were defined as everyone who holds at least 25%, or is directly or indirectly involved in running the company or benefits from it, and all of them had to be listed. Whether the company is a C Corporation or, say, a limited liability company made no difference. Reporting beneficial owners was meant to be unavoidable. From the start there were exemptions for selected sectors such as banks, insurers and a few others. Since the FinCEN rule of 2025, US companies are exempt altogether.

What the original Corporate Transparency Act rules never made entirely clear was how partnerships and trust arrangements should be handled.

Reporting companies had to submit these four details to FinCEN:

1. The beneficial owner's full name
2. The beneficial owner's date of birth
3. The beneficial owner's residential or business address
4. Identification number from an official document, or the beneficial owner's FinCEN identifier

The transition deadlines originally set for existing and new companies are therefore moot: US companies no longer have to report at all. Only certain foreign-formed companies registered to do business in the US still submit their data to FinCEN.

2What changes for business owners?

With the Corporate Transparency Act, the US aimed to counter criminal activity involving American limited liability companies (such as the LLC) head-on. Much like in the EU, the transparency register was meant to help fight money laundering, terrorism and other forms of abuse.

Unlike in other countries, though, the US register is not open to the public. All information only had to be given to FinCEN. For our clients' American business, not much really changes in practice.

If you're not involved in anything shady, you have nothing to fear from a register like this. All the data beneficial owners were supposed to report was already passed to the IRS with the annual tax return.

So the US remains attractive for every entrepreneur who values anonymity and privacy. What this means for the tax-free US LLC without a US permanent establishment is covered by our sister site zerotax.llc; you'll find all our formation services under Formation.

In short

• The Corporate Transparency Act was meant to require companies to report their beneficial owners to FinCEN: everyone holding at least 25% or controlling the company, with name, date of birth, address and ID number.
• Under the interim rule of March 26, 2025 and the final rule of August 11, 2026, in force since August 14, 2026, companies formed in the US are exempt from reporting.
• Only certain foreign-formed companies registered to do business in the US still have to report, and even they don't report beneficial owners who are US persons.
• Unlike in the EU, the register was never open to the public; the data went only to FinCEN.

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