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Advisory Services Breakdown for the Corporate Transparency Act

06/10/2025

With the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) now in effect, many businesses must comply with new Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements set by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). These regulations require companies to disclose ownership details, adding a new layer of compliance responsibilities for small business owners.

For businesses unfamiliar with regulatory filings, advisory services can provide essential guidance to ensure proper compliance, avoid penalties, and streamline the reporting process.

Key Areas Covered by CTA Advisory Services

1. Determining Reporting Requirements

Not all businesses are subject to CTA reporting. Advisory services help determine if a company qualifies by assessing:

  • Business structure (LLC, corporation, partnership, etc.)
  • Ownership and control factors
  • Possible exemptions based on industry or regulation

Many small and mid-sized businesses must file unless they meet exemption criteria, such as being a publicly traded company or a financial institution.

2. Beneficial Ownership Analysis

Advisory professionals assist in identifying beneficial owners—individuals who:

  • Own 25% or more of the company, or
  • Exercise substantial control over business decisions.

This process ensures businesses capture the correct ownership data to avoid incomplete or incorrect filings.

3. Gathering and Verifying Required Information

Once beneficial owners are identified, the next step is collecting and verifying the required details, including:

  • Full legal name
  • Date of birth
  • Residential address
  • Government-issued ID number (passport, driver’s license, etc.)

For new businesses, advisors also help gather company applicant information, which includes details about individuals who filed the business formation documents.

4. Filing Assistance and Compliance Support

Advisory services handle the entire BOI filing process, ensuring that reports are submitted correctly through FinCEN’s electronic filing system before deadlines. They also provide:

  • Deadline tracking to prevent missed filings
  • Review of documents for accuracy before submission
  • Assistance with updates or corrections when ownership changes occur

5. Ongoing Monitoring and Update Filing

BOI reporting isn’t a one-time process—businesses must update their filings within 30 days of any ownership changes. Advisory firms offer compliance monitoring services to:

  • Track changes in ownership or leadership
  • Notify businesses when updates are required
  • Ensure timely and accurate re-filings

6. Avoiding Penalties and Ensuring Compliance

Non-compliance with the CTA can result in significant financial and legal consequences, including:

  • Fines of up to $500 per day for late or inaccurate reports
  • Potential criminal charges for willful violations

Professional advisors help businesses stay ahead of compliance deadlines, reducing risk and ensuring all filings meet regulatory standards.

Why Businesses Should Consider CTA Advisory Services

  • Saves time by handling complex filings on behalf of the business
  • Reduces risk of errors and costly fines
  • Ensures compliance with evolving FinCEN regulations
  • Provides professional guidance for ongoing updates and reporting changes

Make CTA Compliance Simple with Expert Help

Navigating Corporate Transparency Act requirements can be overwhelming for small business owners. Advisory services provide essential support in determining obligations, gathering information, filing reports, and maintaining compliance.

For professional CTA advisory services, BOI filing assistance, and ongoing compliance support, visit www.perpetualcpa.com.

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frequently asked questions

  • What Is A Virtual CFO & How Can It Transform My Business?
    • a. A Virtual CFO can be a much-needed sounding board, coach, and guide. Outsourced Virtual CFO is generally not just one person, but an experienced team of professionals providing a full-stack Accounting and Finance Department at a fraction of the cost that it would otherwise cost a business to hire even just one full-time CFO internally. The right virtual CFO service team, such as the one at Perpetual CPA, can deliver timely, detailed, comprehensive financial reporting, interpret the financial data, prioritize recommendations, give expert guidance on how to execute those recommendations, and ultimately give a better path to business success.
  • How can a Virtual Accounting Department help small businesses scale and grow?
    • a. A growing number of small businesses are opting to outsource services such as IT, human resources, or accounting. The benefit of a Virtual Accounting Department is that the company can reduce or increase services to accommodate current business needs. Because the service provider has multiple clients they can absorb fluctuations in workflow more easily than the average small/medium business can on its own.

      b. A Virtual Accounting Department can integrate with a company’s own accounting department to create a blended solution or provide a full-stack accounting department, including Accounting Staff, Manager, Controller, and Virtual CFO. By using a Virtual Accounting Department Small business owners don’t have to worry about hiring, training, figuring out compensation, and payroll compliance for the internal accounting team. Also as the business grows and new and more complex accounting and tax issues come up, the outsourced Virtual Accounting Department can provide all the needed expertise to facilitate continued business success.
  • What are the benefits of hiring a CPA firm?
    • a. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) do a lot more than just crunch numbers and prepare taxes. They provide valuable expertise and strategies to help businesses and individuals achieve their business and financial goals. A CPA firm can help small businesses with management financial reporting, tax compliance, strategic business advice, and much more. Firms like Perpetual CPA, that specialize in helping small and medium-sized businesses achieve growth, can also provide Virtual CFO services, that help the business owners have the foresight into the short-term future cashflows and be able to more successfully navigate their business performance.
  • What are the best strategies for small business growth?
    • a. A business growth strategy is, simply, a plan of how a business gets from where it is today to where it wants to be in the future.

      b. Some of the questions to consider when coming up with a growth strategy are:
      i. Where will the business get new customers from?
      ii. How will the business expand into new markets?
      iii. What new products could the business offer?

      c. In reality, what happens with many small businesses, is that they generally achieve a specific level of business activity or sales and then the business growth trend flattens. In those cases, working with a firm like Perpetual CPA, which provides Virtual CFO services, can help small businesses avoid stagnation. Virtual CFO services, aside from providing timely accounting and tax reporting, can also provide valuable insight into the current performance of the business, as well as, foresight into the future cash flows for the business. Perpetual CPA Virtual CFO team helps small businesses interpret their financial information and come up with business strategies to help improve business performance and achieve growth.
  • What are the best strategies for small business risk management?
    • a. A risk management plan helps a business develop a detailed strategy to deal with certain risks that are particularly important for the businesses’ success.

      b. For many small and medium-sized businesses, the easiest way to develop and implement a business risk management plan is to work with a reputable CPA firm, such as Perpetual CPA. Large corporations invest a lot of resources and time into managing risk, which is a material factor that allows those large corporations to continue to generate billions of dollars in revenue every year. Small businesses, however, almost never manage any business risks, which is the major reason that over half of all the small businesses do not survive for more than 5 years. Generally, small business owners are not experienced corporate business professionals and lack the needed business knowledge, yet they often have to wear many hats while trying to get their businesses off the ground. In those situations, a CPA firm such as Perpetual CPA, can help small businesses better manage tax compliance risks, cash flow, internal controls, business administration, financial reporting, and much more.
  • What is Strategic Advisory and Virtual CFO? / How do Strategic Advisory and Virtual CFO services work?
    • a. When small businesses start spinning wheels, it is a good time to consider hiring a reputable CPA firm, such as Perpetual CPA, which can provide both Strategic Advice and Virtual CFO services.

      b. As a strategic advisor, the CPA firm will work with business management to improve the effectiveness and profitability of the business. They will look holistically at the business and find ways to operate the business more efficiently, increase customers through additional or improved marketing or improve customer touchpoints and service.

      c. As a Virtual CFO, the CPA firm is like a part-time version of a traditional CFO or Chief Financial Officer plus a full Accounting support team. They perform the tasks that in a larger organization would be performed by the CFO, Controller, and Accounting Staff such as preparing and overseeing the budget process, identifying and analyzing current and future trends, and developing strategies for the business growth.
  • How can timely financial visibility and management reporting help with better business decisions and growth?
    • a. A simple way to a successful business is to prioritize the timely financial visibility and management reporting as it means:
      i. Timely financial information and analysis are essential for making informed decisions, evaluating your company’s results, improving financial performance, and ensuring you are on the path to meet your strategic goals.
      ii. Management reporting is a source of business intelligence that helps business leaders make more accurate, data-driven decisions. But, these reports are most useful if they are available timely and the management receives proper interpretation of the business financial information.

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