New Compliance Requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act

by Salcedo Attorneys at Law

At the beginning of this year, Congress passed a landmark piece of legislation, the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”), which will require all new and existing companies organized under the laws of any of the 50 U.S. states to disclose to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) the following information related to their UBOs:

  • Full legal name;
  • Date of birth;
  • Residential or business address;
  • A unique identifying number from a U.S. or foreign passport or identification document issued by a state. Foreign UBOs will have to also provide a certified copy of their passport.

U.S. entities will have to update their UBO disclosure yearly. There are exceptions to the UBOs disclosure requirements for those entities deemed of low risk from a financial crimes perspective. These include entities with over 20 employees that reported over $5 million in revenue on their latest tax return, along with certain regulated entities that are already subject to disclosure requirements.

FinCEN will not make UBOs information public and, as a matter of fact, access to such information is strictly limited to law enforcement and bank compliance purposes. There are criminal penalties attached to the unauthorized disclosure of UBOs information.

Compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act will be required when the implementing regulations are adopted. Congress has established a deadline of one year for the Department of Treasury to issue such regulations. In April the FinCEN issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking and opened the door to public commenting for initial input on procedures and standards for reporting companies to submit information as to their beneficial owner as required by the CTA. In total, 241 comments were made by the commenting period expiration in May with comments heavily focused on what entities should be exempted and what entities fit into the definition of a “reporting company”.

In the meantime, as we continue to await developments, business owners should begin reviewing the CTA to determine whether their entity will qualify as a “reporting company” subject to its requirements. If so, then business owners will want to (i) begin gathering beneficial ownership information, (ii) review governance documents to confirm there are no confidentiality clauses or other obligations that will conflict with the requirements under CTA, (iii) consider revising governance documents to require owners to disclose the required information, and (iv) implement a process for meeting the CTA’s requirements.

Fabio Giallanza is a partner with Salcedo Attorneys at Law P.A. He focuses his practice in corporate and commercial transactions. He holds an LLM in Taxation from the University of Miami.

 

Visa Business Plans Sponsors the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Santa Fe Conference

By Visa Business Plans

Visa Business Plans recently partnered with the Latin America and Caribbean Chapter (LACC) of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) to present the “Righting the Ship – The Path Forward” conference held December 2-3 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Marco Scanu, founder and CEO of Visa Business Plans, attended the event, which marked Visa Business Plan’s first face-to-face conference in nearly two years, and was delighted to be able to meet with friends in the business immigration world again.

Conference participants enjoyed presentations covering a variety of areas including what consular officers are really looking for, extraordinary ability and nationality interest visas, and post-COVID lessons, among other relevant topics.

Attendees benefited from various interactive presentations and panel discussions among some of the leading immigration lawyers and experts in the United States. They also made new connections with other professionals sharing the common goal of helping immigrants successfully navigate legal issues in the country.

The LACC addresses the needs of immigration attorneys whose work focuses on legal issues in the Latin America and Caribbean jurisdiction. Its mission is to educate, network, and create a cohesive membership throughout the jurisdiction.

Visa Business Plans, under Marco Scanu’s leadership, has been supporting AILA chapters worldwide since the company’s inception in 2010. Participating in these conferences allows Visa Business Plans to stay up-to-date on immigration trends that allows it to constantly adopt its business plans to make sure they cover the latest immigration requirements while remaining rock-solid to confront any challenge.

Marco Scanu is the founder of Visa Business Plans, a Miami-based boutique consulting firm. Visa Business Plans has composed over 6,000 business plans for visa seekers looking to enter the United States. Visa Business Plans also provides consulting services to businesses and entrepreneurs.

 

New requirements to entry the US for international travels

From December 6, 2021, all air passengers will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test before entering to the US. The measure will affect all passengers 2 years or older and it will apply to both US citizens and foreign nationals. The negative COVID-19 viral test must be taken no more than 1 day before travel and must be shown before boarding. Alternatively, for those who have recovered from the virus, passengers must show documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the previous 90 days.

This new rule updates the requirements for international travel and comes out just a month after the Biden administration has reopened the US borders to vaccinated people.

Indeed, President Biden with a much awaited proclamation ( October 25 proclamation ) allowed travelers from 26 Schengen Area countries, Ireland, the UK, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil, who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, to travel again to the US.

So, after an 18-month travel ban, the US has reopened its borders to vaccinated people irrespectively of their country of origin.

These measures are in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) policies against the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. The CDC has in fact determined that the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19, including preventing infection by the Delta or Omicron variant, is for individuals to get vaccinated. According to the CDC, vaccinated individuals are 5 times less likely to be infected and 10 times less likely to experience hospitalization or death due to COVID-19 than unvaccinated individuals. Seems natural that these new requirements on international travel are an effort to reduce the spread of the virus and at the same time an effort to go back to normality.

In conclusion, what are the requirements that international travelers must meet to enter to the US as in light of these new rules ?

They must show 1) a Covid-19 Vaccine certification and 2) A negative Covid-19 test taken one day before travelling.

New Tenant in our co-working space

Technical Yacht Management (www.tethys.mc) is a new tenant of the Chamber’s offices inside the co-working space Italian lab. Leaded by Mr. Nicola Ruggeri and born in 1965, Technical Yacht Management, headquarter in Monaco, is a leading company in the nautical sector with over 50 years of expertise and specialized in marine radio communications.

The company, with fifty years of experience, have developed knowledge in the field of all on-board electronics, domotics, communications and safety at sea, maintaining constant growth.

Technical Yacht Management is recently developing a new business in Florida and has chosen to take advantage of the Italian Lab service offered by the IACCSE which, in addition to providing private offices and shared stations, offers tutoring sessions, one to one encountering with selected business professionals, informative guides, introductions to one to one local business development agencies.

For more information on the Italian Lab service, please click on the following link:

www.iaccse.com/services/market-entry-and-business-development/italianlab/

Thank you to all companies that supported the Gala

The IACCSE would like to like to express its gratitude to all the sponsors for their wonderful and valuable contribution to the Italic Award Gala. Their commitment has been critical to guarantee the success of an event organized in a very short time due to the uncertain situation created by the pandemic.
Therefore, a special recognition goes to:
Gold Sponsors:
Silver Sponsors:
In-Kind Sponsors:
Air Europa, Palio Tours and Kartell (for the the Silent Auction), Acqua Panna San Pellegrino, Ad Maiora, Citronella Graziani, Mercato Miami, Origini Italian Market, Orso Italian Specialty Foods, Pasta e Sapori, Consorzio Prosciutto di Parma, Shaw-Ross International Importers.
Finally, a special acknowledgment goes to Dodo Arslan Studio (www.arslan.it) and Metea (www.metea.it) for designing and producing the beautiful Italic Award.

A spectacular celebration

The 3rd  edition of the Italic Award Gala was a huge success. More than 250 entrepreneurs and executives were in attendance at Port Miami to celebrate an important milestone in the history of the Chamber, its 30th Anniversary.

The evening was filled with a great sense of pride and community.

During the night, our Board of Directors and management team had the pleasure to recognize 2 members with the 2021 Pillar Awards for their longstanding commitment to the chamber: Interamerican Hotels Corp. (20 years of membership) and Maya Enterprises (25 years of membership).

In addition, the IACCSE acknowledged the support of its new premium members Air Europa and Castel USA and presented to them a plaque as a symbol of appreciation for their contributions to our organization.

The peak-time moment of the Gala happened when President, Mr. Tommaso Cardana and the Consul of Italy, Hon. Cristiano Musillo presented the beautiful Italic Award to two excellences of Made in Italy naval and cruise industry: Fincantieri and MSC Cruises represented respectively by Mr. Giovanni Rivera (General Manager of Fincantieri Services USA) and Mr.Richard Sasso (Chairman of MSC Cruises USA).

Attendees were welcomed by an Italian Style aperitivo thanks tom the collaboration of many Italian food and beverage brands and enjoyed a spectacular 4 course dinner featuring a mix of local sourced Florida products as well as authentic Italian products. All dishes were paired with signature Italian wines.

The event included also an amazing silent auction featuring 2 business class air tickets, a unique tour in Italy and an Italian design chair

A picture gallery of the event is available on our Facebook page at:  www.facebook.com/iaccmiami

 

Closing a positive 2021 and planning a rich calendar of initiatives for next year

With its up and downs due to the pandemic and the travel ban, 2021 has been another challenging year for the IACCSE. Nevertheless, the Chamber has been able to offer a wide array of initiatives:

This past February, the IACCSE organized the first edition of the International Business Roundtable in collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico to explore new opportunities both in Mexico and the South-East of the United States and succeeded in organizing the online event Meet US, a series of webinars and B2B meetings organized for Italian SMEs wishing to expand their business in the US market that reached outstanding results with almost 200 participants.

Furthermore, in June, the Chamber managed to organize its first in-person event in 15 months: the Food Design Night at the Miami Design District, that has been the result of 15 partnerships with different Italian companies and has seen more than 300 attendees.

Moreover, in September, the IACCSE presented a hybrid event, both in-person and online: “Italian Grapes in Miami”, that took place at the Miami Culinary Institute which focus was the presentation of 11 Italian wine labels ready for the Florida market to a selected public of wine buyers.

For next year, the IACCSE is preparing 12 months full of new initiatives that will include our regular business breakfasts and European Chambers networking, the 3rd edition of The Best Italian Design, the 2nd edition of our Roadshow in Italy, the 3rd edition of the Authentic Italian Table food & wine festival and the 3rd edition of the European Chambers Tech seminar, among many others.

More information about the 2022 calendar of events will follow on our website: www.iaccse.com

 

The surge of italian citizenship requests

By Italian Citizenship Assistance

The year 2020 witnessed an an unprecedented surge of citizenship applications, which increased by 400% compared to 2019, as observed by the company Italian Citizenship Assistance, an international firm that helps hundreds of Americans with Italian heritage apply for Italian citizenship jure sanguinis (by descent). Although there are several paths to acquiring Italian citizenship (by marriage or by residency/naturalization), citizenship by descent remains one of the most popular paths.

You can apply for Italian citizenship by descent if your ancestor who was born in Italy was still alive in 1861 (which is when Italy was unified as a nation) and if he/she was never naturalized, or if he/she became a U.S. citizen after June 14, 1912 and after the birth of the child who was born in the U.S. Nevertheless, there are also a number of exceptions and other specific eligibility requirements for U.S. citizens. In order to apply for Italian citizenship by descent you need certified copies of your family’s vital records (i.e., birth, marriage, death and divorce certificates) and your ancestor’s naturalization records or proof that he/she was never naturalized. The records need to be authenticated with an Apostille, translated into Italian and submitted to the Italian consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you reside. When the consulate approves your application, you will be registered with the AIRE and you will be issued an Italian passport.

Some argue that the unprecedented surge of citizenship applications has its roots in the environmental, health and political issues worldwide in 2020, however, it must be said that Italian citizenship is also attractive for a number of reasons, namely low cost and high-quality universal health care, affordable university tuition fees, a competitive real estate market and the right to work, study and reside in any EU member state.

For further information on Italian citizenship by descent, by marriage or through residency please consult: italiancitizenshipassistance.com.

ICA also produces a very popular podcast (published on YouTube) on the subject of Italian citizenship, to watch the latest episodes please visit http://youtube.com/italiancitizenshipassistance

ItalianCitizenshipAssistance.com

info@italiancitizenshipassistance.com

1-323-892-0861

 

 

Italic Award Gala – IACCSE 30th Anniversary Celebration


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