The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reinstated an injunction blocking the reporting deadline for Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI), reversing their earlier decision which revived the enforceability of the Corporate Transparency Act, allowing the January 1, 2025 deadline to go back into effect.

In its two-page order, the merits panel of the Fifth Circuit stated that “in order to preserve the constitutional status quo while the merits panel considers the parties’ weighty substantive arguments,” the panel vacates the early ruling to stay Mazzant’s preliminary injunction.

In simple English, this latest development means that the government cannot enforce the CTA and BOI reporting requirements and small businesses are under no obligation to file these reports while the court decides the case.

The anti-money laundering law, commonly referred to as CTA, requires small business owners to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, or pay a fine.

The reporting requirement had been on hold for several weeks ever since a federal court in Texas issued an injunction halting enforcement of the law.

But earlier this week, an appeals panel reversed a lower court’s decision and put the law back into effect.

Following that ruling, the Treasury Department delayed the reporting deadline until January 13, 2025.

The rules, which are intended to crack down on illicit shell companies commonly used by criminals to launder money, first went into effect this year, but allowed existing businesses until January 1, 2025, to register, while businesses that began this year have 90 days to register.

It is possible that opponents of the rules will now appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.