Keep your communities free of FinCEN fines without liability and generate new recurring revenue with an easy BOI reporting platform designed for community management companies.
Book a free demo with our experts to see how community management companies across the U.S. are managing BOI reporting for homeowners associations.
Secure your CTA services on FincenFetch, a certified SOC2 compliant organization and FinCEN filing platform used by hundreds of law and accounting firms across the U.S.
Almost all homeowners and condo associations need to file beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports to avoid fines from FinCEN. If the HOA or condo association uses a formal entity, such as a corporation or LLC, created by filing documents with any state, it must begin filing BOI reports in 2024 unless it qualifies for an exemption. Not filing with lead to substantial fines from FinCEN.
Only two exemptions will rarely apply to HOAs. The first is for HOAs that are tax-exempt non-profits, specifically under section 501(c)(4). The second is for unincorporated condominium associations in places like New York, which may not be considered reporting companies under the Corporate Transparency Act. Generally, HOAs and condo associations are considered reporting companies by FinCEN and need to file FinCEN reports.
Existing communities formed prior to 2024 have until the end of the day on January 1st, 2025 to file their initial reports.
New communities created in 2024 have 90 days from their formation date to file.
Starting in 2025, new communities will have only 30 days to file their initial report. It’s important to remember that HOAs and condo associations have a high rate of filing updated reports due to annual elections and volunteer board members changing between elections. These events and others detailed below trigger the requirement to file an updated report within 30 days of the change to avoid fines.
A report must be filed for every entity within a community’s operating structure unless the entity qualifies for an exemption. These reports must include the legal name of the entity, the state of its formation, any DBA (doing business as) names the entity uses, its tax identification number, the address where it conducts business, and information about those with substantial control (defined below) over the entity.
The BOI report must include all individuals with substantial control over the management of the community. This typically means all board members who vote on important matters impacting the community as substantial control has a very wide definition. Substantial control means the ability to impact important decision for the entity, such as voting on community matters, hiring vendors, or managing assets.
Normally, FinCEN also requires reporting individuals with 25% of more ownership of the entity, but this will rarely apply to HOAs or condo associations unless an individual owns over 25% of the homes or units in a community.
Almost certainly, yes. Board members vote on the important matters impacting the community, hire vendors, dispose of assets, manage finances, make financial plans, sign essential documents, and conduct the critical business of the community through their entities.
FinCEN reporting requires each board member with substantial control submit their full name, date of birth, primary residential address, ID number, and an image of their identification (such as a driver’s license or passport) on every BOI report. FincenFetch makes it easy, fast and secure to collect these details from board members.
Yes. Communities must file updated reports with FinCEN within 30 days whenever there are changes to previously reported information.
Common updated report triggers for communities include the addition or removal of a board member, changes to a board member’s identification number or address, and updates to community information, such as a new office address or a new “doing business as” (DBA) name. Updates ensure the accuracy and compliance of the community’s records with FinCEN’s database.
FincenFetch can send regular reminders to help keep board members aware of these triggers so they don’t incur FinCEN’s $500 per day fines. Community managers can leverage this feature to offer ongoing CTA compliance to their communities.
FinCEN’s penalties for filing late or failing to file include $500 per day fines, $10,000 penalties, and up to two years in jail. Communities must not ignore these new filing requirements. Fortunately, communities using FincenFetch can file in minutes through a secure online platform operated by their community manager.
Two exemptions under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) may apply to homeowners associations (HOAs), but these are extremely rare. The first exemption is for HOAs that are tax-exempt non-profits under section 501(c)(4). This does not apply to all non-profits, only those specifically fully tax-exempt at the federal level under 501(c)(4), which will not include most communities. The second exemption is for unincorporated condominium associations, such as some in New York, which may not be considered reporting companies under the CTA. Generally, FinCEN considers most HOAs and condominium associations to be reporting companies, thus requiring them to file reports.
FincenFetch makes it simple to file these reports and manage ongoing compliance. Community managers can send secure BOI collection links to each board member from the FincenFetch platform. The platform will then send automatic reminders until all board members have finished. Once all information is collected, the community manager clicks a button to eFile the BOI report to FinCEN. After the filing, the system returns the confirmation transcript and securely stores the record for the community manager’s record-keeping requirements.
Future updated reports load in the prior report to allow fast updates and refiling. In addition, regular compliance reminders keep board members aware of the updated report requirement so they can request updates with one-click when board members change mid-year or after elections. Community managers can even load in all of their community data easily with CSV files.