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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, January 13, 2025
Producers worried that they would have to file ownership reports with the Treasury Department next month got a reprieve Thursday when a federal appeals court reinstated an injunction blocking enforcement of the new requirement.
A federal judge in Texas has blocked the federal government from requiring small businesses, including farms, to start filing reports disclosing their ownership. The disclosure requirement, which the judge described as “quasi-Orwellian,” is intended to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters of California, and four senior Senate Democrats are urging an appeals court to preserve a new law that requires small businesses, including farms, to disclose their ownership to the federal government.
Farms and small businesses can start filing the ownership reports they are required to provide the federal government under a law intended to curb money laundering.
Farmers across the country are likely to be in for a surprise in 2024 when they must start filing disclosure reports with an obscure federal agency that is tasked with fighting money laundering and financial terrorism.