— The United States House of Representatives passed a bill tonight that would put America's small business owners' personally identifiable information at unprecedented risk and cost them billions of dollars and millions of hours in paperwork. The Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 (H.R. 2513), which passed the House 249-173 attempts to shift a responsibility from big banks to America's smallest businesses, saddling them with an additional 131.7 million hours of paperwork at a cost of $5.7 billion over the first 10 years.
"The House today not only shouldered millions of small business owners with a tremendous compliance burden but put their personally identifiable information at serious risk," said NFIB President & CEO Juanita D. Duggan. "The reporting requirements and devastating financial penalties will affect only small businesses, from farmers to franchisees to the mom-and-pop retail shop down the street. It is a big-government solution in search of a small-business problem, and we will not cease our efforts to stand up for small businesses against this serious threat."
The Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 is legislation that would require only those small corporations and limited liability companies with 20 or fewer employees to complete and submit annual paperwork which includes the personally identifiable information of each business owner to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network upon the creation of the business and periodically for the life of the business. Failure to comply is a federal crime with civil penalties up to $10,000 and criminal penalties of up to three years in prison.
While everyone is distracted by "impeachment", this is what the government is doing.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2513
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/proposed-corporate-transparency-act-2019-would-require-corporations-and-limited
(Score: 4, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday November 05 2019, @03:02PM (14 children)
.... like the other (200? 300? 400? numbers vary) that President Pro Tempore McConnell is sitting on. It's not quite the stew it's being made out to be, because there are always minority bills which are sat on and go nowhere and there always will be dead on arrival bills, And yet it does have some merit thanks to Grim Reaper McConnell. [thehill.com], in fact quite a bit of merit. [cbsnews.com]
And it wasn't completely party line (25 Republican yays, 5 Democrat and 1 Indep Nays [house.gov]), but it's close enough to party line to predict how it will fare in the Senate. It will die.
So this is a non-story, effectively.
With a protip: Whenever you hear a bill pass only one chamber (especially in a divided Congress), if there is no status listed on who voted or a divided vote, it's likely a dead issue unless mighty political wrangling occurs and that wrangling would then be noted in the story. In this Congress, a Democrat-only supported House bill that gets Senate traction should also be a separately noted element of the story.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @03:50PM (5 children)
Good point, just more fodder to rile up the red base. That explains the focus on numbers, the reds always get overly worked up by the very idea of government costing them any amount of money.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @04:35PM (3 children)
And the blues never met any regulation they didn't like as long as somebody else is paying. Papers please...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @08:35PM (2 children)
Ok boomer
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @09:16PM (1 child)
One day you'll grow up too, junior.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 06 2019, @01:19AM
Alrighty boomer
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 05 2019, @04:36PM
Not just any amount, BILLIONS!, and if it's not BILLIONS! in the first year, roll it out to year 5, or 10, or 20 until is is BILLIONS!!!!!
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 05 2019, @04:15PM
Yep, but they can scream about it on talk radio and Fox News for hours in an attempt to drown out things they don't want talked about.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stormreaver on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:08PM (6 children)
And this is perhaps the only reason I can think of to vote for Trump: the more that Congress is divided and bickering, and therefore unlikely to pass any new laws, the better off the entire country is. The ideal congressional split is exactly 50%, thereby limiting the ability of our Federal government to agree on ways to harm our country with new laws.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:54PM (5 children)
When things are as fucked up as they are now, doing nothing is exactly the wrong thing to do. Doing Something may not fix the problems, but Doing Nothing WILL NOT fix them.
Unfortunately with The Single Largest Enemy Of Democracy Mitch McConnell in office nothing is precisely what we will get.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @08:16PM (2 children)
All because in this world of entropy, the set of trajectories increasing chaos is always the larger one. Doing nothing is preferable to thrashing at random.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday November 06 2019, @03:15PM (1 child)
Interesting point. But if in the current trajectory chaos is accelerating at 100 G, and all potential shots which reinforce accelerate at 110 G, and the negative trajectory possibility reduces that to 1G, then maybe it is time to take a shot anyway.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 07 2019, @03:25AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday November 05 2019, @11:02PM (1 child)
Chill, man, you are not (yet) at the worst, doing something can still result in worse. So, careful what you wish for, it may happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday November 06 2019, @07:58PM
Of course it can make things worse. Then again, it might make it better, too!
Change is needed. Doing Nothing will not change things.
The actual problem is getting those assholes in Congress to fix things better for the people instead of the powerful.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.