Do you know what the BFOI requires? I just filled one out this morning.
It's literally just the names and govID numbers of the beneficial owners. All the info you need is a picture of the driver's license for each owner. That's it. Not a single figure. No percentage of ownership or shares etc. Requires absolutely zero accounting.
Also, the website requires no login, lessening the burden. (Actually for a gov website I thought it was pretty well designed, with clear help/explanations, etc.)
Many accountants are worried about the risk of filing for their clients and won’t do it at all. Determination of ownership is not as straightforward as one might assume in many cases.
My accountant just told me yesterday that AICP is telling their accountants to just have their clients do it themselves cuz of liability reasons in ownership not being as straightforward in many situations, like you said.
Or it may be straightforward (the people in control know they're in control) but not reflected in the books as it's not an accounting issue, and therefore the accountant doesn't really know (and doesn't want to assume wrong).
It's literally just the names and govID numbers of the beneficial owners. All the info you need is a picture of the driver's license for each owner. That's it. Not a single figure. No percentage of ownership or shares etc. Requires absolutely zero accounting.
Also, the website requires no login, lessening the burden. (Actually for a gov website I thought it was pretty well designed, with clear help/explanations, etc.)
Your accountant is souping it up.