I recall many small business owners panicking when this requirement seemed to sneak up on them.

Wasn't the purpose of it to aid in mitigating certain types of fraud, like with Covid-19 PPP loans and Medicare?

I think the genesis was the Panama papers release way back. Turns out the US is one of the better places to launder money through.

I don’t understand though: Why would any company find it difficult to register their owners? That seems like a pretty basic thing any company should know and it’s a perfectly normal thing in most countries.

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lazide a day ago | parent [-]

Most countries have work arounds, because of a combo of;

1) stalkers 2) hiding money from divorce proceedings and angry ex’s 3) hiding money from lawyers looking for a payday 4) hiding money from various tax authorities

well, often there is a lot of overlap among all of these.

	▲	lazide 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Note: for all these groups, it can be fun to kinda act like you have hidden assets in classic places so they spin their wheels thinking you are a genius hiding things there, until they get in trouble with their bosses for wasting their time being creepy stalkers. Hello ladies!

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rglover a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Supposedly, but there was scant information about the what/why and small businesses were told compliance was mandatory and failure to comply would have been a felony (if memory serves). This is phenomenal news if you're an SMB. That would have caused a lot of grief for those unaware (most people were because rollout was slipshod at best).

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HWR_14 a day ago | parent [-]

The cost was filling out a form. Maybe you had to photocopy your ID.

And if I recall correctly it was only a felony to refuse to comply. The government sent letters that had to be ignored, etc.

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jerdthenerd a day ago | parent | next [-]

I personally filled out this form, under duress, because there was ZERO communication from any regulating body of the requirement.

And yes it was a felony to not register by, IIRC, December 31st of the same year the measure was passed or some other very accelerated timeline.

There was no email, letter, or notification received. The data collected included enough information for someone to effectively takeover my business record for my state if the government dataset ever got leaked.

I'm glad they are forcing the erasure of the data.

	▲	HWR_14 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It was a felony to refuse to register. They gave you notices and warnings before it got that far. Of course you wouldn't get an email. If you hadn't filed the paperwork you would have gotten a written warning. But you did it on time, so that never happened. The data collected was less than what was on your license or passport. What data fields do you think would have allowed anyone to commit identity theft or takeover your business.

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htrp a day ago | parent | prev [-]

It was just filling out a form