AICPA backs bill narrowing beneficial ownership reporting to foreign owners

The American Institute of CPAs is backing a bill that would make a major compliance cut permanent: domestic U.S. companies and U.S. persons would stay out of beneficial ownership reporting, while foreign reporting companies would remain in scope. For finance, legal and accounting teams at firms like KPMG, that would reduce the churn of deciding which entities still need filings, which can wait and which can be dropped entirely.

In letters sent May 19 to Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Sens. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah, the AICPA said it strongly supports bicameral legislation to codify Treasury’s interim beneficial ownership information rule. The measure is the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act, H.R. 425, introduced in the 119th Congress and referred to the House Financial Services Committee. A Senate companion bill has also been introduced.

The policy fight matters because the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s March 2025 interim final rule already removed BOI reporting requirements for U.S. companies and U.S. persons and narrowed the regime to entities previously defined as foreign reporting companies. FinCEN also said foreign reporting companies do not have to report the BOI of U.S. persons. In most cases, existing foreign companies required to report had until April 25, 2025 to file. The AICPA is now trying to turn that interim structure into the lasting rulebook.

That shift would be welcome relief for domestic businesses that have had to treat BOI as another time-sensitive compliance project layered on top of tax deadlines, audit work and year-end close. The original Corporate Transparency Act, enacted as part of the fiscal 2021 defense bill, was written to help combat money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption, tax fraud and other illicit activity while minimizing business burden. The problem for many companies has been the gap between that intent and the operational reality of deciding who qualifies, what has to be disclosed and how much staff time the process will consume.

For KPMG tax and advisory professionals, the legislative push changes the day-to-day work in a concrete way. Domestic clients could simplify entity review, avoid unnecessary filing efforts and spend less time on a rule that has already shifted once through Treasury action. Foreign-owned structures still need careful screening, especially where beneficial owners are U.S. persons, and legislative movement will keep the reporting status of some clients in flux. The larger signal from Washington is clear: professional groups are pressing for targeted, risk-based compliance instead of broad reporting that adds cost without much added value.