Small business owners have a lot on their plates, from keeping the lights on and managing payroll to building trust with their customers and communities. In New York City alone, there are over 183,000 small businesses, which is a record high. These businesses make up 98% of the city’s total business count, and 89% have fewer than 20 employees. That means the city’s economy is deeply rooted in the success of its smallest enterprises.
This surge in entrepreneurship isn’t just a New York story — it reflects a national trend. One in three small businesses in NYC started in the last two years, a pattern we see echoed in cities and towns across the country.
What they shouldn’t have to do is compete with anonymous companies operating as fronts for criminal enterprises that exploit loopholes in our financial system. Yet that’s exactly what happens without basic transparency measures in place.
So then why did the new Trump Administration change the rules to make it harder for honest small businesses to operate on a level playing field?
Let me explain. On March 2, the Treasury Department announced that it would no longer require U.S. domestic businesses to report their true, “beneficial” owners to the Department under the Corporate Transparency Act – a disclosure measure that was initially passed by Congress to make it harder for bad actors to use anonymous U.S. companies to launder money, hide assets, and evade accountability.
While Treasury’s March pronouncement was made in the name of easing compliance costs for Main Street, our members were left befuddled. Like most of America’s small businesses, our members are largely sole proprietors and nonemployer firms. How hard could it be to disclose the true owner of a business made up of only one person?
As it turns out, not that hard: since filing began in January last year, businesses reported that filing takes less than 15 minutes. And once filed, businesses have no further obligations unless their ownership changes, keeping the process streamlined and simple. We’ve worked directly with Treasury and its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to help educate our members on how to comply, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In a 2024 survey conducted by Small Business Majority, 82% of non-employer firms said the filing process was easy. Only 6% said it was very difficult. These are hardly numbers that suggest the system is broken.
And given its relatively small costs, the benefits are immense. At its core, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is about fairness. The law makes it harder for bad actors to steal contracts meant for legitimate small business owners, disrupt supply chains by posing as subcontractors, or flood the market with cheap and dangerous counterfeit products. Additionally, bad actors use anonymous companies as fronts to peddle fentanyl, commit human trafficking, and launder dirty money – all of which endangers our employees, their families, and their communities.
Let’s be clear. This is not an anti-business law. It’s a pro-honest-business reform. It levels the playing field and promotes a transparent, trustworthy marketplace—something small business owners across the political spectrum can agree on. And the CTA doesn’t just have support from Main Street business owners. It’s backed by law enforcement, national security experts, bipartisan policymakers, and faith-based organizations. Even according to President Trump’s own pollsters, it has enjoyed widespread support. That’s because it closes a glaring loophole that, for too long, has allowed criminal enterprises and corrupt actors to thrive in the shadows.
Rather than delivering what small businesses actually need – sensible tax measures, proper resources and staffing for the Small Business Administration, a predictable business environment free of tariffs – Administration officials instead seem to be responding to pressure from well-funded lobbying groups working to gut this law, even though it was passed with bipartisan support during the first Trump administration. Let’s be honest: these efforts don’t reflect the needs or views of real small business owners. Weakening or failing to enforce the CTA would send a troubling message that corruption is tolerated, that those willing to cut corners will continue to get ahead, and that ethical small business owners will be left behind.
Now is not the time to backtrack. If we want to build a resilient, transparent, and competitive economy, we need to stand by the Corporate Transparency Act. The administration should reinforce, not weaken, this law, and send a clear signal that in America, doing business the right way still matters.
Every business deserves a level playing field. The CTA is a smart, simple step toward that goal and one that small business owners across the country overwhelmingly support.
Richard Trent is the executive director of Main Street Alliance.
