NFIB Is Pushing Congress to Permanently Kill BOI Reporting — Here’s Why It’s Not Settled Yet
Small businesses got a BOI reporting exemption in 2025, but NFIB's 2026 ad campaign shows the mandate could still come back. Here's what's at stake and why owners shouldn't assume it's over.
Small business owners who breathed a sigh of relief when Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements were exempted in 2025 shouldn’t file that away as finished business. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is running a fresh, multi-state ad campaign this summer pressing Congress to permanently repeal the underlying law — a sign that the exemption currently in place isn’t the same as the mandate being gone for good.
In 2025, the exemption saved an estimated 32 million American small businesses from an estimated $128 billion in regulatory and compliance costs tied to BOI reporting, according to NFIB. But NFIB says that relief is an exemption, not a repeal — the underlying Corporate Transparency Act mandate remains on the books, which is why the organization has continued lobbying “in Congress, executive branch agencies, and the federal courts” to eliminate it entirely.
Starting in June 2026, NFIB launched paid radio and digital ads in multiple states — including Florida, New Jersey, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Washington, D.C. — urging specific members of Congress by name to permanently repeal the BOI mandate, with plans to expand the campaign nationwide. NFIB is also asking the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to destroy all BOI data small businesses have already submitted. “Now it’s time for Congress to ensure this invasive reporting mandate does not return,” NFIB President Brad Close said, calling for a “full repeal of the unconstitutional BOI law.”
Why it matters
The reason NFIB is pushing so hard: if the exemption is ever narrowed, reversed, or allowed to lapse without a permanent legislative fix, the reporting requirement — and its penalties — snap back into place. Under the current law, businesses that fail to comply with BOI reporting can face criminal and civil penalties of up to two years in federal prison and fines as high as $10,000. That’s a meaningful compliance risk sitting on the shelf, not in the trash, for any business owner who assumed this issue was permanently resolved.
What this means for small business owners
Don’t treat the current exemption as a reason to stop paying attention to this issue:
Know your entity’s exposure. If your business structure changes — new owners, a new LLC, a merger — check whether that resets your reporting obligations, since exemptions can be structured narrowly.
Keep your ownership records organized anyway. Whether or not you’re currently required to file, having clean, current ownership documentation ready protects you if the requirement returns with a short compliance window.
Watch for legislative movement, not just headlines about “repeal.” An ad campaign urging repeal isn’t the same as a repeal actually passing — track whether Congress moves a permanent fix versus letting the current exemption remain temporary.
Loop your bookkeeper or CFO advisor in now. If the mandate does snap back, the businesses that scramble are the ones that never assigned anyone to track it.
The bottom line
The BOI reporting fight isn’t over — it’s paused. NFIB’s escalating ad campaign is a signal that the small business lobby doesn’t consider the current exemption durable, and owners who assumed this was settled in 2025 should treat it as an open compliance risk worth a five-minute check-in with their advisor, not a closed chapter.
