A bill to amend title 31, United States Code, to require only foreign entities to report beneficial ownership information, and for other purposes.

Proponents argue this bill protects privacy rights of U.S. citizens from government overreach and unnecessary federal data collection, claiming beneficial ownership reporting primarily burdens law-abiding Americans while criminals use foreign entities anyway. Critics counter that beneficial ownership transparency is a cornerstone of modern anti-money laundering frameworks endorsed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and international partners; that the U.S. has historically been a haven for shell company abuse precisely because of lack of transparency; that FinCEN data is already used by legitimate law enforcement to prosecute financial crimes, sanctions evasion, and tax fraud; and that the bill guts existing reporting infrastructure (requiring deletion of current data) that agencies depend on. Non-partisan evidence shows beneficial ownership registries correlate with reduced illicit financial flows in jurisdictions that implement them (per FATF mutual evaluation reports); the U.S. has previously been cited by international bodies for inadequate corporate transparency compared to peer nations.